MY  FATIIKK. 


]•:.  if.  M;U» 


Fronti.tjiii.i->'. 


MY    FATHER 


MY    FATHER 

Personal  &  Spiritual  Reminiscences 
By      ESTELLE      W.     STEAD 


LONDON  MCMXIII 

WILLIAM    HEINEMANN 


Copyright. 


DEDICATED 
TO 

EMMA   LUCY   STEAD 

BELOVED 

WIFE   AND   MOTHER 


FOREWORD 

I  HAVE  not  attempted  in  this  book  to  cover  the 
whole  of  my  Father's  life.  Many  events  are  put  in 
the  background  and  some  are  omitted  altogether. 

I  have  endeavoured  to  show  the  "  beginnings  " 
of  some  of  his  activities,  and  leave  it  to  a  fuller 
Life  to  give  in  detail  the  work  which  grew  out  of 
these  "  beginnings." 

I  have  dwelt  more  especially  on  his  interest  in 
Spiritualism,  and  have  sought  to  show,  by  quotations 
from  his  own  writings,  that  Spiritualism  was  indeed 
spiritual  to  him.  And  that  it  was  his  belief  in  a 
Higher  Power  that  made  him  undertake  many 
things,  which  he  knew,  without  that  Power,  would 
have  been  impossible. 

I  have  quoted  largely  from  Reminiscences 
written  by  him  in  1893,  which  cover  his  early  life 
up  to  the  time  of  his  leaving  the  Northern  Echo. 

I  am  indebted  to  The  Christian  Endeavour 
World,  America,  for  permission  to  publish  my 
Father's  own  account  of  what  he  considered  two 
of  the  most  impressive  scenes  of  his  life. 


viii  FOREWORD 

I  regret  that  I  have  found  it  impossible  to  do 
more  than  touch  on  my  Father's  wonderful  friend- 
ships, which  extended  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest,  and  ranged  over  all  nationalities,  creeds  and 
politics. 

ESTELLE  W.  STEAD. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 

PARENTAGE 

1 

CHAPTER  II 

REMINISCENCES 

15 

CHAPTER  III 

REMINISCENCES  CONTINUED 

32 

CHAPTER  IV 

REMINISCENCES  CONTINUED 

53 

CHAPTER  V 

CARLYLE  AND  GLADSTONE 

72 

CHAPTER  VI 

His  FIRST  PREMONITION 

81 

CHAPTER  VII 

His  FIRST  SEANCE 

95 

CHAPTER  VIII 

1880—1885 

104 

CHAPTER  IX 

His  SECOND  PREMONITION 

114 

CHAPTER  X 

THE  MAIDEN  TRIBUTE 

122 

CHAPTER  XI 

IN  GAOL 

136 

CHAPTER  XII 

1887  TO  1890.     His  FIRST  PEACE  MISSION 

148 

CHAPTER  XIII 

"  JULIA" 

157 

CHAPTER  XIV 

REAL  GHOST  STORIES 

159 

CHAPTER  XV 
AUTOMATIC  WRITING.    How  HE  BEGAN  TO  WRITE 

170 

ix 

CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XVI  PAGE 

1892.     EASTNOR  CASTLE  177 

CHAPTER  XVII 
"A  DRAMATIC  INCIDENT"  194 

CHAPTER  XVIII 
BORDERLAND  211 

CHAPTER  XIX 

"DOUBLES"  219 

CHAPTER  XX 

CHILDREN  AND  PEACE  226 

CHAPTER  XXI 

THE   FRIENDSHIP   BETWEEN    FATHER    AND    CECIL 

JOHN  RHODES  231 

CHAPTER  XXII 

PHOTOGRAPHING  INVISIBLE  BEINGS  254 

CHAPTER  XXIII 
THE  DAILY  PAPER  272 

CHAPTER  XXIV 
His  BELIEF  IN  PRAYER  277 

CHAPTER  XXV 

WILLIE  282 

CHAPTER  XXVI 

JULIA'S  BUREAU  287 

CHAPTER  XXVII 
THE  MORNING  CIRCLE  314 

CHAPTER  XXVIII 

THE  SULTAN.    PROPOSED  ARBITRATION  CAMPAIGN     318 

CHAPTER  XXIX 
His  COMING  TRANSITION  335 

CHAPTER  XXX 

His  PASSING  AND  RETURN  341 

INDEX  345 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

MY  FATHER  Frontispiece 

EMBLETON  MANSE  To  face  page  2 

THE  HOUSE  AT  HOWDON  ,,          2 

MY  FATHER  AGED  12  ,,24 

„     16  „         24 

MY  FATHER,  1873  „        54 

1881  „       104 

SCENE  OUTSIDE  THE  "PALL  MALL  GAZETTE" 
OFFICES  DURING  THE  MAIDEN  TRIBUTE 

AGITATION,  1885  ,,      122 

FATHER    AS    A    CRIMINAL    CONVICT,    COLD- 
BATH-IN-THE-FlELDS  PRISON,  NOVEMBER, 

1885  „       136 

THE  CARD  MY  FATHER  SENT  FROM  HOLLOW  AY 

GAOL  „      142 

CAMBRIDGE  HOUSE,  WIMBLEDON  ,,      158 

HOLLY  BUSH  „      158 

FAMILY  GROUP,  1891  ,,      178 

WITH  THE  CHILDREN  AT  HAYLING  ISLAND  ,,      226 

IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1904  „      274 

xl 


xii  LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

WILLIE  To  face  page  282 

IN  THE  GARDEN  AT  CAMBRIDGE  HOUSE  ,,        294 

IN  CONSTANTINOPLE,  1911  ,,        318 

FATHER,  WITH  OLIVER  CROMWELL'S  PISTOL 
AND  A  STATUE  OF  GENERAL  GORDON, 
ETC.  342 


CHAPTER  I 

PARENTAGE 

"  Some  may  give  sons  an  ancestry  noble,  that  came  with   the 

Conqueror  in, 
But  ah,  what  is  blood  the  most  ancient,  compared  to  the  soul 

that's  within  ? 
Some  boast   of   the  treasure  they  gave  us,  and  high  heaps  of 

silver  and  gold, 
But  compared  with   the   dower  you  gave  me,   it's  metal  both 

worthless  and  cold." 

(W.  T.  STEAD,  at.  20,  To  his  Mother.) 

ON  July  5th,  1849,  in  the  little  manse  under  the 
shadow  of  the  Northern  hills,  my  Father,  William 
Thomas  Stead,  was  born — the  first  son  of  the 
manse.  As  the  loving  eyes  of  mother  and  father 
looked  into  those  of  their  babe,  did  they  see  any 
vision  of  the  path  that  lay  ahead  ?  Did  the  eager, 
loving  soul  gazing  on  life  for  the  first  time  through 
those  baby  eyes,  give  any  sign  of  the  life  to  come,  of 
that  strenuous  fight  to  overcome  wrongs  that  blotted 
the  wonderful  world  into  which  it  had  just  been 
born  ?  of  the  gallant  endeavour  to  bridge  the  grave, 
and  make  death  but  a  beautiful  pathway  to  another 
life  ;  to  lift  the  veil  and  enable  those  here  to  see  the 

1  B 


MY   FATHER 

world  around.  The  fight,  seemingly  alone,  against 
terrible  odds,  was  not  alone,  for  he  was  to  know 
that  He  Who  was  with  him  was  stronger  than  all 
those  against  him,  and  that  for  him  there  was  no 
other  path — the  "  Sign  "  was  given  and  he  must 
follow.  And  then  the  end,  the  glorious  end  of  the 
earthly  body,  thrown  off  to  rest,  covered  by  the 
deep,  dark  waters  of  the  Atlantic,  as  the  soul 
passed  upward  to  the  greater  and  fuller  life. 

His  father  was  the  Rev.  William  Stead,  a  Con- 
gregational minister,  to  whose  forethought,  in 
noting  down  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  came 
after  him,  the  reader  is  indebted  for  the  following 
brief  details  of  family  history. 

In  Wharfedale,  in  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire, 
two  miles  from  Ben  Rhydding,  four  miles  from 
Bolton  Abbey,  and  six  from  Skipton,  there  is  a 
village  named  Addingham,  near  to  which  once 
stood  a  farmhouse  in  which  the  Rev.  William 
Stead's  father,  Thomas  Stead,  was  born,  in  1778, 
his  father  being  then  a  farmer  .  .  .  .  ("I  never 
knew  my  grandfather,"  remarks  the  minister,  in 
parenthesis,  "  but  I  remember  my  grandmother. 
She  could  remember  the  news  coming  of  the  de- 
feat of  Charles  Stuart  at  Culloden,  in  1745." )  .  .  . 

While  the  aforesaid  Thomas  Stead  was  very 
young,  his  father's  fortunes  suffered  such  severe 
reverses,  owing  to  agricultural  depression,  that  the 
family  was  obliged  to  leave  the  Wharfedale  farm. 
The  father,  with  his  wife  and  children,  removed  to 
the  village  of  Crooks,  about  a  mile  from  Sheffield, 


EMBL.ETON  MANSE,  WHERE  MY  FATHER  WAS  BORN. 


THE  HOUSE  (TO  THE  LEFT)  AT  HOWUON— WHERE  FATHER 
SPENT  HIS  YOUTH  ( 1 850-1 87 R 


PARENTAGE  3 

where  he  continued  to  live  until  he  died.  The  son, 
Thomas,  married  a  farmer's  daughter,  "of  the 
parish  of  Bradfield  in  Yorkshire."  And  it  was 
this  couple's  son,  William,  who  breasted  the 
adverse  tide  of  family  misfortune,  by  his  own 
strength  and  independence  of  character,  and  after 
much  hard  study,  under  very  difficult  and  uncon- 
genial conditions,  succeeded  in  becoming  a  minister 
of  the  Congregational  church  ;  which  was  his  heart's 
desire. 

In  due  course  his  ministerial  duties  called  him 
to  Northumberland,  where  he  met  and  eventually 
married,  a  lady  named  Isabella  Jobson,  daughter  of 
Mr.  John  Jobson,  farmer,  of  Sturton  Grange,  near 
Wark worth.  The  estate  of  Sturton  Grange 
belonged  jointly  to  John  Jobson  and  his  brother 
Christopher,  who,  during  the  Peninsular  war,  had 
made  money  in  shipping  and  had  invested  it  in 
land. 

The  marriage  of  William  and  Isabella  Stead  was 
a  singularly  felicitous  one,  from  beginning  to  end, 
notwithstanding  frequent  ill-health,  straitened 
means,  and  much  hard  work.  For  there  was 
likewise  love  in  abundance,  great  mutual  sympathy 
and  understanding,  and  a  deep  and  simple  religious 
faith. 

Their  first  home  was  at  Embleton  Manse,  near 
Alnwick,  and  it  was  there  that  my  Father  was  born. 

He  writes  himself,  concerning  this  event :  "I 
was  born  just  when  Europe  was  in  its  first  reaction 
after  the  revolutionary  social  outburst  of  1848.  " 

There  was  one  little  sister  just  over  two  years  old 

B  2 


MY   FATHER 

at  the  time  of  his  birth,  who,  with  the  fate  of  a 
family  of  kittens  still  fresh  in  her  baby-memory, 
when  presented  to  the  small  new  brother,  innocently 
suggested  that  he  should  be  "  put  down  the  well." 
He  was  very  fond  of  telling  this  family  tradition,  to 
which  he  generally  added  with  a  chuckle  :  "  And  I 
reckon  there  are  plenty  of  folks  who  would  think  it 
a  mighty  good  thing  if  I  had  been  put." 

From  both  parents  he  inherited  a  deeply  religious 
temperament,  which  was  spiritual  rather  than  de- 
votional, in  the  sense  in  which  the  latter  term  is 
generally  used.  He  was  passionately  attached  to 
his  mother.  One  who  knew  her  intimately  has 
left  this  tribute  to  her  life — "  A  life  very  simple, 
very  placid  in  its  *  deeds  of  weekday  holiness,'  yet 
most  powerful  in  its  shaping  influence  upon  the 
fiery  ardent  nature  of  her  son." 

"From  early  childhood  Mrs.  Stead  was  the 
subject  of  religious  impressions.  She  had  passed 
through  much  domestic  affliction  previous  to  her 
marriage.  One  text  was  her  comfort  through  it  all : 
6  God  is  our  refuge  and  strength,  a  very  present  help 
in  trouble.' ' 

At  the  age  of  twenty-two  she  married  the  Rev. 
William  Stead.  On  hearing  of  his  approaching 
marriage  an  old  woman  said  to  him  :  "  You  are 
going  to  marry  Miss  Jobson.  Why,  she  is  half  a 
priest  herself."  From  a  child,  although  she  was 
very  delicate,  she  was  ever  anxious  to  be  "  about 
her  Master's  business."  She  worked  hard  and  with 
a  great  earnestness  at  a  time  when  her  children 
were  still  young.  For  sixteen  years  there  was 


PARENTAGE  5 

always  a  baby,  and  yet  regularly  during  the  greater 
part  of  that  time,  she  met  the  girls  of  her  Sunday 
class  well  prepared.  She  never  till  her  death 
ceased  to  be  the  friend,  comforter  and  adviser  of 
her  people,  Her  own  comfort  was  unthought  of 
if  she  could  only  secure  that  of  others.  She  was 
a  great  peace-maker.  If  she  knew  of  anything 
likely  to  cause  unpleasantness,  either  in  the  Church 
or  between  individuals,  she  used  to  go  to  the 
different  parties  and,  with  great  tact  and  judgment, 
talk  kindly  to  them,  and  without  in  any  case 
giving  offence,  would  succeed  in  stilling  the  tempest 
that  otherwise  would  have  arisen.  .  .  . 

She  made  her  home  very  happy.  She  read  and 
studied  to  afford  pleasant  subjects  for  conversation, 
so  that  there  should  be  no  lack  of  interest  and 
intelligence  in  the  home  circle.  She  entered 
heartily  and  with  ever-ready  sympathy  into  the 
pursuits  of  each  of  her  family.  There  was  not  a 
joy  nor  a  sorrow  but  they  shared  it  with  her, 
always  sure  of  her  ready  sympathy.  She  never 
became  old.  She  used  to  say  "  I  feel  just  like  a 
young  girl  yet."  In  teaching  her  children  it  was 
always  the  love  of  Christ  she  tried  to  set  before 
them. 

One  Easter  she  was  taken  ill  and  never  recovered. 
A  great  part  of  the  time  was  spent  in  bed.  She 
suffered  much,  but  with  the  greatest  patience  and 
without  murmuring.  Once  someone  asked  her  if 
she  felt  Christ  near  her.  She  looked  up  with  a  smile 
of  love  and  confidence  mingled  with  surprise,  and 
said  :  "  Of  course  I  feel  Christ  near  me.  How  could 


6  MY   FATHER 

I  live  without  that  ?  He  is  always  with  me." 
Eight  days  before  her  death  she  gave  up  all 
hope  of  living,  and  asked  for  her  sons  to  be  sent 
for.  She  said :  "  Tell  them  not  to  pray  for  me 
to  live.  I  want  to  go  Home  to-night.  I  only 
want  to  stay  till  the  boys  come,  and  then  go  to 
Heaven.  I  would  like  to  go  to-night,  but  Jesus 
is  preparing  a  place  for  me  and  He  won't  come  for 
me  until  it  is  quite  ready." 

The  death  of  her  son  Joe,  a  boy  of  fifteen,  was 
the  greatest  trial  of  her  life.  On  her  deathbed  she 
used  to  say  :  "  I  shall  soon  see  my  Saviour.  And 
I  shall  soon  be  with  Joe.  I  shall  see  my  boy 
again."  She  said  :  "  Tell  our  people  how  very  much 
I  love  them,  and  how  very  kind  they  have  been  to 
me.  Tell  them  they  must  get  ready  to  meet  me  in 
Heaven.  They  must  get  ready  now." 

She  fell  asleep,  as  was  her  wish,  in  her  husband's 
arms,  and  awoke  in  Heaven. 

Speaking  of  her  to  one  of  her  children,  an  old 
village  dame  once  remarked  :  "  When  we  tell  your 
mother  anything,  it's  like  telling  it  to  the  Lord — 
we  never  hear  of  it  again  ! " 

"  In  the  year  1850,"  my  Father  writes  in  his 
Reminiscences,  "we  left  Embleton  for  North 
Shields,  from  whence  we  came  to  Howden,  about 
five  miles  from  Newcastle,  on  the  North  Bank  of 
the  Tyne,  where  my  father  was  Congregational 
Minister  till  he  died." 

The  following  is  taken  from  his  own  tribute  to 
that  beloved  father,  written  in  1885,  a  few  days 
after  the  latter's  death,  and  long  afterwards 


PARENTAGE  7 

republished  in  the  Review  of  Reviews  under  the 
title  of  "  My  Father  and  my  Son  "  :— 

"  For  the  last  hour  I  have  been  lying  on  the 
old  couch  in  my  father's  study,  watching  the 
'  shadows  from  the  fitful  firelight '  dancing  on  the 
familiar  walls  within  which  so  much  of  my  earlier 
life  was  spent.  The  gloaming  has  given  place  to 
darkness.  I  have  lit  the  gas,  and  I  will  now 
endeavour,  before  the  first  day  after  the  funeral 
has  gone,  to  jot  down  as  faithfully  as  I  can  a  few 
reminiscences  of  the  father  to  whom,  and  to  my 
mother,  I  owe  all  that  I  am,  all  that  I  have,  and 
all  that  I  ever  shall  be.  The  place  is  congenial 
for  such  a  retrospect.  Here,  on  the  very  spot 
where  I  am  writing,  my  father  taught  me  to 
read,  and  helped  me,  then  a  shy  and  timid  child 
of  six,  sitting  upon  his  knee,  to  pick  my  way 
through  the  Latin  grammar.  Many  long  years 
have  gone  by  since  those  early  days,  when 
father's  study  was  both  my  schoolroom  and  my 
favourite  playground  ;  but  how  little  is  changed  ! 
The  small  room  with  its  bookshelves — which 
then  seemed  to  me  to  be  laden  with  all  the  learning 
of  the  world,  but  whose  literary  furnishing  now 
seems  so  poor  and  so  meagre — is  just  as  it  was. 
The  bed  is  changed,  but  all  else  is  there.  A 
little  room  it  is,  with  one  draughty  window — 
study  and  bedroom  in  one ;  yet  there  was  lived 
out  within  its  four  walls  a  noble  life  of  patient 
service  for  others,  of  humble  devotion  and 
simple  piety,  Oh  !  my  dear,  my  patient,  long- 
suffering  father !  How  utterly  inadequate  are 


8  MY   FATHER 

my  poor  words  to  express  in  merest  outline  the 
debt  I  owe  to  you,  or  to  describe  the  image  of  per- 
sonified goodness  which  dwells  in  our  memories  ! 
"  It  is  more  as  a  father  than  as  a  minister  that 
I  would  speak  of  him.  Asa  minister  there  have 
been  many  more  popular,  but  none  more  re- 
spected ;  and  there  were  many  who  were  more 
eloquent  and  more  successful,  although  no  one 
could  have  been  more  faithful  and  devoted.  But 
as  a  father,  I  never  knew,  I  will  not  say  his 
superior,  but  even  his  equal.  My  experience  of 
men  is  wider  now  than  when  I  was  first  called 
from  Tyneside,  but  the  wider  the  range  of  my 
acquaintance  with  the  families  of  the  world,  the 
more  deeply  am  I  impressed  with  the  fact  that 
in  him  we  had  all  but  realised  the  ideal  of  father- 
hood. His  life  was  lived  for  his  children. 
Every  moment  he  could  spare  from  study  was 
ours,  we  were  always  with  him.  One  of  my 
earliest  recollections  is  that  of  constructing 
stables  for  my  toy  horses  with  Hume  and 
Smollett's  calf-bound  History  of  England  as 
building  materials,  under  the  table  on  which 
father  was  writing  his  sermons.  He  possessed 
a  rare  gift  of  concentration  and  could  write  and 
study,  undisturbed  by  the  noisy  chatter  of  his 
children,  who  were  making  dolls-houses  or  riding 
a  rocking-horse  at  the  other  end  of  the  room. 
That  rocking-horse  !  What  memories  it  recalls  ! 
It  was  of  his  own  making.  Accustomed  from  his 
youth  to  manual  labour — he  had  served  his 
apprenticeship  as  a  cutler  at  Sheffield  when 
rattening  was  an  ordinary  incident  of  the  cutler's 


PARENTAGE  ,  „, 

life — he  was  never  at  a  loss  to  make  what  he  had 
not  the  means  to  buy.  This  rocking-horse  was 
fearfully  and  wonderfully  made,  with  four  legs  as 
straight  as  bedposts,  a  neck  of  unplaned  deal,  and 
a  tail  of  rags  ;  but  it  rocked  as  well  as  the  best, 
and  it  only  succumbed  at  last  when  some  six  of 
us  attempted  to  ride  it  at  once !  Had  it  not 
been  a  home-made  article  it  would  have  collapsed 
long  before 

"  There  was  literally  nothing — that  was  not 
contrary  to  the  Ten  Commandments — that  our 
father  would  not  have  done  to  encourage  us. 
Himself  reserved,  and  humble  almost  to  a  morbid 
point,  he  fully  appreciated  the  importance  of 
praise  as  a  means  of  encouraging  to  effort. 

"  He  taught  me  almost  all  that  I  ever  learned, 
sitting  on  his  knee  at  the  table.  I  never  went  to 
school  until  I  was  twelve,  and  my  two  years' 
schooling,  although  invaluable  in  other  things, 
added  comparatively  little  to  my  grasp  of  the 
instruments  of  knowledge — except  perhaps  in 
algebra  and  mathematics.  He  taught  us  Latin 
almost  as  soon  as  we  could  read,  and  we  were 
reading  the  Old  Testament  before  we  were  five. 
I  learned  the  Latin  grammar  before  the  English. 
Before  I  went  to  school  I  was  enthusiastically 
devoted  to  Scott  and  Byron,  which  were  amongst 
the  reading  books  from  which  I  learned  to  read. 
My  elder  sister  and  1  were  taught  together  ;  in 
every  respect  we  were  taught  alike.  We  had  the 
same  class-books,  the  same  lessons,  the  same 
tasks.  Although  there  were  only  two  of  us,  we 
always  went  up  and  down  in  class.  Top  was 


10  MY   FATHER 

father's  knee.  Bottom  was  a  chair ;  and  many 
a  tear  was  shed  by  the  eager  child  who,  at  the 
close  of  the  class,  was  off  the  knee. 

"  Our  schoolday  began  at  six  o'clock  in  the 
winter  morning,  when  father,  who  down  to  the 
last  was  an  early  riser,  would  hear  us  our  spelling 
as  we  lay  in  bed,  when  he  was  busy  lighting  the 
study  fire.  It  was  an  informal  class,  but  effective; 
nor  did  he  ever  allow  false  spelling  to  escape 
in  spite  of  all  his  domestic  cares.  After  break- 
fast and  family  worship,  to  which  morning  and 
evening  with  unfailing  regularity  the  whole 
household  was  gathered,  we  had  one  Bible  lesson 
and  other  lessons  till  eleven.  Then  we  were  free 
till  after  dinner,  when  he  taught  us  again  for  an 
hour  or  two,  after  which,  beyond  learning  our 
tasks  for  the  next  day,  our  schooling  was  over. 
The  actual  teaching,  however,  was  only  a  branch 
of  our  education.  To  be  with  our  father  day 
after  day,  at  every  meal  except  supper,  to  play 
in  his  study  when  it  was  wet,  to  go  out  walking 
with  him  when  it  was  fine,  to  live  constantly 
under  the  stimulating  and  inspiring  shadow  of  his 
presence,  that  was  an  education  in  itself.  We 
were  constantly  encouraged  to  enquire.  No 
question  was  too  absurd  to  be  disregarded ;  no 
theory  too  wild  not  to  be  treated  with  kindness. 
Always  studious  and  fond  of  reading,  and  posses- 
sing a  singularly  retentive  memory,  he  was  to  us 
a  perfect  library,  the  volumes  of  which  always 
opened  themselves  at  the  right  place  whenever 
we  sought  information.  My  first  knowledge  of 
the  convict  system  was  gained  in  this  way,  and 


PARENTAGE  11 

I  daresay  that  most  of  my  earliest  ideas  as  to 
the  world  and  all  it  contains,  reached  me  from 
my  father's  lips.  Few  persons  whom  I  have 
ever  met,  possessed  the  art  of  making  his  know- 
ledge more  pleasantly  available  to  others.  He 
never  read  a  book  or  a  newspaper  without 
gathering  some  facts,  some  incidents,  some  illus- 
trations, to  tell  us  at  meal  times,  or  to  serve  as  a 
subject  for  discussion  when  we  were  out  for  his 
invariable  midday  walk. 

"  Not  one  of  us  ever  felt  the  least  awe  of  him 
nor  was  afraid  to  ventilate  an  opinion  in  his 
presence.  No  one  was  snubbed  for  ignorance,  or 
silenced  for  presumption.  Each  one  was  taught 
that  his  opinion  was  worth  having.  In  our  little 
commonwealth  every  citizen  had  a  right  to  a 
voice,  the  only  unpardonable  thing  was  not  to 
have  an  opinion  at  all.  To  outsiders,  admitted 
for  the  first  time  into  the  vehement  democracy 
of  our  household,  the  first  impression  was 
naturally  one  of  scandal.  The  fierce  young 
disputants  showed  little  conventional  reverence 
for  their  father.  He  debated  with  them  on  a 
footing  of  perfect  equality.  If  he  indulged  in  a 
fallacy,  it  was  exposed  as  mercilessly,  and  his 
mistakes  were  denounced  as  roughly  as  if  he  had 
been  one  of  the  boys  ;  nor  did  he  ever  resent  the 
liberties  taken  by  his  children.  I  sometimes 
grieved  my  mother,  if  I  did  not  hurt  my  father,  by 
the  vehemence  of  my  retorts,  but  how  vivid  is 
the  sense  of  gratitude,  how  deep  the  impression 
of  those  hot  and  eager  days  !  He  never  lost  our 
respect  by  enduring  what  others  called  our 


12  MY   FATHER 

impudence.  He  never  asserted  his  right  to 
reverence  as  a  matter  of  authority,  but  there 
was  not  one  of  us  who  did  not  revere  him 
beyond  all  other  men. 

"A  most  useful  habit  which  my  father  in- 
culcated was  that  of  remembering  the  leading 
points  of  whatever  we  heard  and  repeating  them 
to  him  when  we  came  home.  Many  a  painful 
moment  I  have  had  when  I  forgot  the  heads  of 
a  sermon,  but  the  training  was  most  useful. 
This  faculty  for  remembering  what  has  been  said 
to  you  in  order  to  repeat  it  at  home,  has  been  of 
great  use  to  me  in  many  ways.  In  interviewing 
it  is  invaluable.  I  have  frequently,  without 
taking  a  single  note,  been  able  to  dictate  or 
write  out  three  columns  of  close-print  report 
of  an  interview,  to  the  accuracy  of  which  the 
person  interviewed  has  given  his  most  emphatic 
testimony. 

"  It  would  be  a  mistake  to  imagine  that  my 
only  memories  of  my  father  are  those  of  a 
strenuous  teacher,  always  eliciting  enquiry  or 
supplying  information.  He  was  our  best,  our 
most  delightful  playmate.  I  mixed  little  with 
the  boys  of  the  village.  My  sister,  my  father, 
and  I  were  playfellows.  He  made  us  our  first 
swing.  He  made  us  our  first  kites ;  carved  our 
first  bat  and  taught  us  to  play  cricket.  It  was 
with  him  that  we  learned  to  use  the  bow  and 
arrow,  and  to  fish.  Almost  the  only  things  1  did 
not  learn  from  him  were  riding  and  rowing.  He 
had  a  nervous  dread  of  boating  and  he  was  never 
quite  free  from  fear  about  horses.  So  deeply 


PARENTAGE  13 

rooted  was  his  antipathy  to  boating,  and  so  scru- 
pulous the  regard  we  paid  to  his  wishes,  that  I 
was  twenty-three  years  of  age  before  I  handled 
an  oar.  It  is  very  curious  that  one  who  had 
such  an  instinctive  shrinking  from  all  unnecessary 
danger,  should  have  encouraged  us  in  making  all 
manner  of  chemical  experiments.  For  years  we 
used  to  amuse  ourselves  every  winter  by  making 
gunpowder  or  squibs  and  in  firing  toy  cannons. 
I  can  still  see  the  pane  of  glass  in  the  study 
window  through  which  the  leaden  bullet,  fired 
out  of  a  cannon  I  had  made  from  an  old  key, 
perforated  a  hole  round  as  a  pea.  But  other 
accident  we  had  none.  There  was  never  an 
interest  of  ours  which  was  not  his  also.  He  : 
lived  our  lives  as  well  as  his  own,  and  to  the  last 
he  was  a  boy  amongst  his  boys.  That  evergreen 
youthfulness  of  heart  which  distinguished  him 
was  a  great  charm  to  us  all.  Akin  to  this  there 
was  a  great  and  unruffled  cheerfulness  of  speech. 
Few  but  those  who  lived  in  closest  intimacy  with 
him  ever  knew  how  sore  sometimes  was  the 
heart,  while  the  face  bore  the  same  placid  kindly 
smile.  He  was  emphatically  a  healthy  man, 
healthy  and  whole-hearted. 

"  There  was  a  fine  spirit  of  inflexibility  about 
his  notions  of  duty.  It  was  not  a  question  of 
'ought'  with  him,  but  merely  one  of  'must.' 
He  did  not  preach  much  about  the  obligation  of 
doing  one's  duty.  He  only  made  us  feel  that  to 
neglect  one's  duty  was  as  flat  a  flying  in  the  face 
of  the  law  of  the  universe,  as  to  neglect  to 
breathe. 


14  MY   FATHER 

"  I  do  not  remember  during  the  thirty  years  I 
knew  him,  having  seen  him  lose  his  temper  once. 
The  meekest  and  mildest  of  men,  I  have  seen 
him  bear  insults  which  made  me,  boy  as  I 
was,  long  to  smite  the  insulter  to  the  ground. 
But  he  never  displayed  any  other  sign  of  feeling 
than  that  of  rubbing  the  side  of  his  head  with  his 
hand.  'Never  think  of  yourselves  more  highly 
than  you  ought  to  think '  was  a  maxim  ever  in 
his  mind.  He  carried  it  out  by  always  thinking  of 
himself  less  highly  than  he  ought  to  think.  The 
faculty  of  self-estimate  is  rare,  we  always  either 
underdo  or  overdo  it.  Our  father  underdid  it. 
Modest  and  reserved  he  never  pushed  himself; 
what  is  more,  he  always  discouraged  others  from 
pushing  themselves.  He  was  always  restrained. 
He  never  incited  to  new  ventures.  Cautious  in 
the  extreme,  he  was  never  bold  except  when  he 
saw  clearly  that  a  certain  course  was  right.  Then 
all  hesitation  disappeared.  But  when  of  two 
courses  neither  might  be  right,  he  always  pre- 
ferred the  more  retiring.  He  doubted  at  first 
whether  I  should  go  on  the  press.  Afterwards, 
when  I  was  called  to  London,  he  shook  his  head  ; 
*  Why  do  you  not  remain  where  you  are  ?  I  do 
not  see  why  you  should  be  changing.'  Of  all 
things  he  abhorred  pride.  The  last  warning  he 
addressed  to  me  the  day  on  which  1  took  leave 
of  him  for  ever  was  :  '  Walk  humbly  before  God, 
and  take  care  that  you  be  not  carried  away  by 
too  great  popularity.'" 


CHAPTER    II 

REMINISCENCES 

"  The  idea  that  everything  wrong  in  the  world  was  a  divine  ^"1 
call,  to  use  your  life  in  righting  it,  sank  deep  into  my  soul." — 
W.  T.  STEAD. 

"  IN  1854,  occurred  the  first  family  event  that 
I  remember ;  my  mother's  sister  and  her  family 
emigrated  to  Canada.  About  the  same  time  I 
remember  the  Russian  War,  and  how  sorry  I 
used  to  be  for  the  horses  that  were  killed.  Some- 
how I  have  never  been  very  sorry  for  men.  I 
have  been  sorry  for  horses,  for  women,  and  birds, 
but  men  have  not  touched  me.  When  I  was  a 
child  and  stories  used  to  be  told  about  carriage 
accidents  and  so  forth,  I  never  manifested  the 
slightest  interest  in  the  fate  of  the  people  in  the 
carriage,  but  I  would  cry  bitterly  if  the  horses 
broke  their  legs  or  got  hurt." 

As  a  very  small  boy,  his  sister  relates,  he  used  to 
gloat  with  fascinated  awe  and  enjoyment  over  the 
references  to  the  horses  in  the  Book  of  Revelation. 

"  Before  1854,  I  fell  in  love,  and  you  will  be 
surprised  to  hear  that  the  object  of  my  devotion 


15 


16  MY   FATHER 

was  no  other  than  Queen  Elizabeth  !  I  remem- 
ber distinctly  feeling  about  her  exactly  what 
you  would  feel  about  a  woman  with  whom  you 
are  in  love  ;  i.e.,  you  are  greatly  interested  to 
hear  everything  about  her  that  you  can  ;  you 
believe  that  she  is  the  peerless  of  all  women  ;  and 
you  regard  all  her  enemies  as  enemies  of  the 
human  race,  who  ought  to  be  exterminated.  To 
this  day  I  have  never  been  able  quite  to  get  over 
the  feeling  of  exultation  that  Mary  Queen  of 
Scots  had  her  head  cut  off.  I  could  not  deny 
that  Mary  was  better  looking  than  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, although  I  did  occasionally  deny  even  that 
in  those  days,  to  such  lengths  did  I  carry  my 
zeal,  but  I  think  I  felt  that  a  woman  who  could 
be  more  beautiful  than  My  Ideal  Love  deserved 
beheading  !  From  Queen  Elizabeth,  by  associa- 
tion of  ideas,  and  also  because  she  was  an  ex- 
tremely nice, loving,  and  kind  woman,!  transferred 
my  affection  to  an  Aunt  Bessie.  The  memory  of 
her  was  brought  back  in  an  odd  way  after  nearly 
forty  years  of  oblivion,  by  the  announcement  made 
at  a  seance  a  week  or  two  ago *  that  my  aunt 
Bessie  was  with  me  there,  with  other  members  of 
my  family.  She  died  when  I  was  quite  a  child. 

"  I  think  1  was  about  eight  years  old  when  I 
fell  in  love  with  a  child  of  my  own  age.  She 
went  to  school  close  to  our  home,  and  after 
school-time  she  used  to  play  with  my  sister.  I 
do  not  remember  anything  about  her  except  that 
her  name  was  Lizzie  and  that  she  wore  a  dimity 
pinafore  that  was  rather  stiff.  That  was  only  a 
1  These  Reminiscences  were  written  in  1893. 


REMINISCENCES  17 

passing  fancy.  My  first  real  serious  love  affair 
was  when  I  was  between  ten  and  eleven,  when  I 
fell  over  head  and  ears  in  love  with  a  girl  named 
Lydia,  who  had  long  golden  curls  and  bright  blue 
eyes  and  a  beautiful  red  and  white  complexion. 
She  was  the  belle  of  the  village  and  all  the  boys 
were  crazy  over  her.  Alas,  she  was  two  years 
older  than  I,  and  when  you  are  only  eleven  two 
years  seem  a  whole  eternity ! 

"  All  the  same,  I  was  very  much  in  love  with 
her,  though  I  never  dared  to  breathe  my  affection. 
In  the  winter  time  I  used  to  walk  behind  her  at 
a  distance  and  put  my  feet  into  the  footprints 
she  had  made  in  the  snow,  and  feel  inexpressibly 
happy.  It  was  about  this  girl  that  the  fight 
occurred  to  which  Mr.  Waugh  alludes,  but  like 
most  historians  he  ignores  a  very  vital  considera- 
tion, in  order  to  make  it  appear  that  my  battle 
was  on  behalf  of  her  modesty,  or  from  general 
devotion  to  ideal  virtue  ;  whereas  it  was  really  in- 
spired by  a  very  devoted  love  for  the  girl  herself." l 

This  characteristically  frank  explanation  refers 
to  a  battle  royal  concerning  a  "  maiden  in  distress," 
who,  while  endeavouring  to  hide  the  loss  of  her 
garter,  was  frustrated  in  her  object  by  a  boy  con- 
siderably older  than  William.  A  terrific  fight 
ensued,  in  which,  sad  to  relate,  our  hero  was  beaten 
by  the  superior  strength  and  age  of  his  opponent. 
His  loyal  little  sister  stood  by  him,  though  filled 
with  grief  and  mortification  that  the  minister's  son, 

1  See  "William  Stead,  A  Life  for  the  People."     By  the  Rev. 
Benjamin  Waugh. 

C 


18  MY  FATHER 

who  should  have  been  a  pattern  to  all  the  parish, 
was  guilty  of  fighting  before  a  small  crowd  of 
other  children — that  was  ignominy  almost  too 
great  to  be  borne  ! 

"  We  solemnly  promised  each  other,"  says  his 
sister,  "  that  we  would  never  tell  our  parents,  or 
cause  them  such  grief  as  would  be  theirs  if  they 
knew.  We  kept  our  word.  When  editor  of 
the  Northern  Echo,  William  told  the  tale  in 
rhyme  among  a  number  of  other  childish  reminis- 
cences, at  a  homely  Church  Social  gathering. 
Our  father  who  was  in  the  chair  said  it  was  the 
first  he  had  ever  heard  of  it." 

"  Up  till  1861,"  he  proceeds,  "  my  sister  and  I 
got  all  our  teaching  from  father,  who  taught  us 
Latin  and  to  read  French,  although  he  did  not 
know  it  at  all  as  a  spoken  language.  In  1861  I 
went  to  Silcoates  School,1  near  Wakefield.  It 
was  a  school  for  the  sons  of  Congregational 
Ministers.  I  had  not  been  there  for  two  months 
before  a  very  remarkable  revival  of  religion 
broke  out  in  the  school,  and  nearly  all  the  boys, 
excepting  about  half-a-dozen,  professed  to  have 
been  converted.  Some  twenty,  I  think,  joined 
the  Church,  myself  among  the  number.  I  had, 
previous  to  that  time,  had  an  occasional  but 
very  intense  sense  of  my  own  sinfulness,  and  1 
remember  at  one  time  sobbing  so  bitterly  after 
I  had  gone  to  bed,  at  the  thought  of  my  lost 
condition,  that  my  mother  had  to  come  up,  and 
I  had  to  have  a  great  deal  of  comforting  before 
I  could  get  to  sleep." 

1  Dr.  Bewglass  was  Headmaster  at  the  time. 


REMINISCENCES  19 

Of  this  revival,  of  which  it  will  be  rather  difficult 
to  find  a  parallel  among  public-school  annals,  he 
wrote  the  following  account  in  1904. 

"  The  tradition  of  the  school  in  the  fifties  had 
not  been  distinctly  religious.     All  of  us  came 
from  Christian  homes,  but,  as  a  school,  it  was 
very  much  like  other  schools.     About  a  month 
after    I    entered    Silcoates,    some   of  the  lads 
started    a    prayer-meeting   of   their    own    in    a 
summer-house  in  the  garden.      They  asked  me 
to  join,  and  I  went,  more  out  of  curiosity,  and 
to  oblige  my  chum,  than  for  any  other  reason. 
There  were  about   half-a-dozen  of  us,   perhaps 
more,  none  of  us   over   fourteen.     We  read  a 
chapter  in  the  Bible,  and  we  prayed.     No  master 
was  present,  nor  was  there  any  attempt  made  on 
the  part  of  the  masters  to  encourage  the  prayer- 
meeting.     One  master,  indeed,  was  frankly  con- 
temptuous.     The    majority    of    the    boys   had 
nothing  to  do  with  'the  prayer-meeting  fellows.' 
One  or  two  of  us  were  under  deep  conviction  of 
sin,  and  we  talked  among  ourselves,  and  read  the 
Bible,  and  prayed.     Suddenly  one  day,  after  the 
prayer-meeting  had  been  going  on  for  a  week  or 
two,  there  seemed  to  be  a  sudden  change  in  the 
atmosphere.      How  it  came  about  no  one  ever 
knew.     All  that  we  did  know  was  that  there 
seemed  to  have  descended  from  the  sky,  with 
the  suddenness  of  a  drenching  summer  shower,  a 
spirit  of  intense  earnest  seeking  after  God  for  the 
forgiveness  of  sins  and  consecration  to  His  service. 
The  summer-house  was  crowded  with  boys.     A 

c  2 


20  MY  FATHER 

deputation  waited  upon  the  Principal  and  told 
him  what  was  happening.  He  was  very  sympa- 
thetic and  helpful.  Preparation  class  was  dis- 
pensed with  that  night ;  all  the  evening  the  prayer- 
meeting  was  kept  going.  There  was  no  singing, 
only  Bible  reading,  a  few  words  of  exhortation,  a 
confession  of  sin  and  asking  for  prayers,  and  ever 
and  anon  a  joyful  acknowledgment  of  an  assurance 
of  forgiveness.  Those  of  us  who  could  not  find 
peace  were  taken  out  into  the  playground  by 
their  happier  comrades,  who  laboured  with  them 
to  accept  Christ.  How  well  to  this  very  day  do 
I  remember  the  solemn  hush  of  that  memorable 
day  and  night  in  the  course  of  which  forty  out  of 
the  fifty  lads  publicly  confessed  conversion." 

On  reading  over  his  boyish  letters  home — he 
was  in  his  thirteenth  year  and  away  from  home 
for  the  first  time — one  cannot  but  be  struck  by 
the  deeply  religious  note  running  through  them 
all,  mixed  up  quaintly  with  references  to  his  studies 
and  games.  The  letter  quoted  below  is  typical  of 
the  sentiment  expressed  in  all  his  letters  at  that 
time.  Very  touching  in  its  simplicity  and  genuine- 
ness is  his  appeal  to  his  sister  : 

"SILCOATES  SCHOOL. 
Sept  27th. 

MY  OWN  DEAR  SISTER,— 

1  take  up  my  pen  to  write  to  you.  Now 
you  must  know  that  to-day  is  the  beginning  of 
the  Michaelmas  holidays,  if  we  were  to  have 
holidays  at  this  time,  but  we  are  not  to  have 


REMINISCENCES  21 

any,  but  notwithstanding  that,  the  two  G.'s  are 
going  to  Leeds  to  stay  till  Tuesday.  The  two 
G.'s  would  have  bought  some  of  the  stamps  if  I 
had  not  given  them  some.  E.  and  A.  bought 
the  stamps.  Now  my  dear  sister  unless  you 
have  already  given  your  heart  to  God,  give  it 
to  Him  now.  My  dear  Mary  Isie,  turn,  oh  turn, 
why  will  ye  die,  have  you  any  objection  to  come 
to  Him  who  is  altogether  lovely.  Oh  that  I 
could  love  Him  more  arid  I  wish  that  everybody 
in  the  world  could  have  their  eyes  opened  to 
their  danger.  Oh  how  great  the  danger  is  and 
how  many  walk  on  with  their  eyes  shut  to  hell, 
oh  that  awful  place.  No  one  can  tell  the 
miseries  of  that  place.  And  then  the  way  to 
glory  is  so  simple,  anyone  can  come  to  Him, 
you  are  saved  already  if  you  will  only  believe  on 
HIM  and  believe  that  you  are  saved.  That  was 
the  point  where  I  stuck  so  long  while  I  felt  as 
though  I  could  not  come  to  Him,  but  oh,  how 
easy  a  way  it  is  to  come  to  Jesus,  the  simplicity 
of  it  baulked  me,  oh  come  to  Jesus  (Behold  a 
stranger  at  the  door?  He  gently  knocks,  has 
knocked  before).  Oh  come  ere  it  be  too  late, 
you  will  never  repent  it,  you  are  saved  if  you 
believe  you  are  saved ;  oh  why  delay  to  come. 
Now  my  dear  sister  I  must  bid  you  good-bye, 
give  my  love  to  Mrs.  Bell  arid  all  the  children. 
I  hope  Mama  is  in  perfect  health.  I  pray  for 
you  all  every  night. 

I  remain, 

Your  affectionate  brother 

W.  T.  STEAD. 


22  MY   FATHER 

Referring  to   the   Revival,   in   a  letter   to    his 
mother,  he  writes  : 

"  SILCOATES  SCHOOL. 
MY    VERY    DEAR   MAMA, 

There  has  been  a  great  work  going  on  in  the 
School.  The  teacher  I  spoke  of  has  obtained 
peace  and  has  been  instrumental  in  the  con- 
version of  J G first  and  then  of  several 

other  boys.  Well,  on  the  18th  of  September  the 
blessed  work  began.  I  obtained  peace,  so  did 
six  other  boys.  We  went  in  to  Doctor  and 
asked  his  advice  concerning  it.  That  night 

young   G became    serious,   he  has   always 

been  anything  but  serious.  / 1  talked  seriously 
to  him  all  that  night  and  he  said  that  he  wished 
he  could  come  to  Jesus.  I  explained  to  him  as 
well  as  I  could  how  ready  Jesus  Christ  and  how 
simple  the  way  was.  Next  day  I  walked  and 
talked  with  him  a  long  while ;  at  last  he  found 
peace  in  the  afternoon.  I  was  very  pleased  and 
thought  that  God  had  made  me  the  instrument 
of  saving  him,  but  afterwards  I  heard  him  say 
that  he  had  found  peace  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  A—  -  and  that  teacher  I  told  you 
of.  I  felt  this  rather  keenly  and  still  more  when 
every  boy  almost  in  the  school  who  had  found 
peace  could  say  he  had  led  some  to  Jesus  while 
I  who  tried  very  much  and  prayerfully  to  turn 
some  from  their  evil  ways ;  how  J  walked  long 
with  them  and  talked  to  them,  and  apparently 
they  took  no  notice  at  all  when  another  boy 
(said)  just  two  or  three  words  to  them  they 


REMINISCENCES  23 

would  burst  out  crying  and  in  a  few  minutes 
they  would  find  peace.  I  know  this  caused 
great  agony  o£  spirit  that  I  could  bring  none  to 
the  Saviour.  f\  will  send  a  more  lengthy  account 
of  the  Revival  afterwards  ;  suffice  it  to  say  that 
there  are  only  five  boys  in  the  School  who  have 
not  confessed  that  they  have  received  peace 
though  I  am  afraid  that  many  will  fall  away.  I 
myself  still  feel  that  if  I  died  this  instant  I 
would  go  to  Heaven.  Now  good-bye  my  dear, 
believe  me, 

Your  affectionate  son, 

WILLIAM  STEAD. 

P.S. — Mama  and  Dada,  Doctor  proposed  that 
we  should  join  the  Church.  I  know  that  it 
rather  startled  me  but  send  me  your  opinion 
of  it." 

In  his  childhood  as  in  later  life  the  idea  of 
mourning  was  appalling  to  him.  Referring  in 
one  letter  to  the  death  of  his  little  sister,  he 
writes : 

"  Where  will  she  be  buried  ?  Please  do  not 
take  any  mourners.  I  should  like  her  to  be 
buried  in  the  garden." 

This  was  the  little  sister  Hettie  (described  as 
a  "  sweet  and  fascinating  child ")  to  whom  he 
had  acted  by  turns  as  nurse,  companion,  and 
playmate,  during  her  short  lifetime.  She  died 
in  1862,  aged  three,  during  his  absence  at  Silcoates 
School.  He  was  deeply  attached  to  her  and  felt 
her  loss  severely.  In  after  years,  clairvoyants 


24  MY   FATHER 

occasionally  saw  with  him  a  fair-haired,  blue- 
eyed  child,  with  pink  and  white  complexion, 
whom  he  loved  to  think  was  this  little  sister, 
Hettie.  Again,  in  1868,  writes  a  member  of  the 
family,  "dark  clouds  gathered  and  burst  over 
the  happy  home."  Scarlet  fever  broke  out  in 
the  village;  two  of  the  Stead  children  took  it, 
one  slightly,  the  other  seriously.  The  latter,  Joe, 
a  boy  of  fifteen,  "  full  of  fun  and  merriment,"  died 
after  three  weeks'  illness.  This  was  a  terrible 
shock  to  them  all,  and  those  days  were  dark 
indeed. 

"  I  was  little  more  than  twelve,"  proceed  the 
Reminiscences,  "when  I  joined  the  Congrega- 
tional Church  at  Wakefield,  and  I  have 
remained  a  member  of  the  Congregational 
Church  ever  since.  Nor  has  anything  occurred 
in  all  my  subsequent  wanderings,  spiritual  or 
otherwise,  to  lead  me  to  wish  to  abandon  that 
position.  The  Congregationalists,  as  the  heirs 
of  Cromwell  and  Milton  and  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers,  and  the  representatives  of  extreme 
Democracy  which  knows  neither  male  nor 
female,  and  makes  the  votes  of  the  whole 
Church  the  supreme  and  only  authority  in  the 
Church ;  have  always  attracted  me,  nor  does 
the  attraction  grow  less  with  years,  although 
I  have  often  differed  more  or  less  from  many 
Congregationalists. 

"  When  I  was  at  school  I  became  an  enthu- 
siastic devotee  of  cricket;  and  also  learnt  the 
principles  of  self-government,  for  the  boys  were 


REMINISCENCES  25 

left  very  much  to  themselves.  So  that  I  may 
be  said  to  have  acquired  three  very  important 
things  at  school,  none  of  which  were  in  the 
curriculum,  viz. :  Christianity,  Cricket,  and 
Democracy. 

"T  left  school  in  1863  and  was  apprenticed  as 
office-boy  in  a  merchant's  Counting  House  on 
Quayside,  Newcastle-on-Tyne.  The  office  hours 
fortunately  were  not  long,  and  we  had  an  hour 
for  dinner  at  mid-day  during  which  I  got  in  a 
good  deal  of  reading." 

His  employer,  Mr.  Smith,  was  also  Russian 
Vice-Consul.  He  came  thus  early  into  touch  with 
Russian  "  atmosphere." 

"  In  the  first  year  of  my  apprenticeship,"  he 
says,  "  my  chief  reading  was  the  Sporting  Life 
sandwiched  with  novels.  Passionately  fond  of 
cricket,  I  got  the  Sporting  Life,  eagerly 
devouring  its  descriptions  of  the  big  matches. 
From  the  bat  and  ball  columns  I  turned  to  the 
sporting,  becoming  familiarised  with  all  the  prize 
horses  and  tremendously  excited  about  the 
winners.  Then  came  a  shunt — I  was  shunted 
like  a  goods  train  on  to  an  altogether  different  set 
of  rails.  Dick's  '  Penny  Shakespeare  '  came  out 
and  I  managed  to  buy  the  numbers.  My  pocket 
money  was  threepence  per  week,  of  which  a 
penny  was  religiously  exacted  for  the  mission- 
aries. The  remaining  tuppence  was  all  my 
weekly  capital.  This  I  invested  in  penny 
Shakespeares,  the  first  being  Hamlet  and  Othello. 
A  new  world  opened  up  to  me ;  the  great 


26  MY    FATHER 

tragedies  and  drama  coming  to  me  as  a  kind 
of  revelation.  I  went  in  for  a  lot  of  hard 
reading — reading  almost  everything  I  could  get 
hold  of.  Among  other  things  I  read  Carlyle's 
"  Life  of  Cromwell,"  which  had  an  immense 
influence  upon  me. 

"  Like  most  other  youths  in  those  days  I  was 
in  the  habit  of  competing  for  the  modest  prize 
offered  for  essays  in  the  Boys  Own  Magazine, 
which  was  then  published  by  S.  O.  Beeton.  I 
wrote  several,1  always  under  the  name  of 
W.  T.  Silcoates,  and  only  succeeded  once  in 
getting  a  prize.  My  solitary  success  was  an 
essay  on  Oliver  Cromwell,  in  compiling  which  I 
took  a  great  deal  more  pains  than  in  writing  any 
book  I  have  since  published,  so  at  least  it  seems 
to  me  looking  back  twenty  years  and  more,  and 
I  certainly  enjoyed  much  more  keenly  that  first 
triumph  than  any  successes  achieved  in  later 
years.  The  prize  was  one  guinea,  to  be  taken 
out  in  books  published  by  the  proprietor  of  the 
Soys  Own  Magazine.  I  remember,  as  if  it  were 
yesterday,  carefully  going  through  the  little 
catalogue  making  up  my  guinea's  worth,  and 
after  selecting  books  valued  at  twenty  shillings  I 
chose  the  "  Poetical  Works  of  James  Russell 
Lowell"  to  make  up  the  guinea.  That  little 
volume,  with  its  green  paper  cover,  lies  before  me 
now,  thumbed  almost  to  pieces,  underscored  and 
marked  in  the  margin  throughout,  and  inside 
there  is  written :  *  To  W.  T.  Silcoates,  with 

1  He  wrote  an  Essay  on  "  Coal,"  and  another  on  "  The  Villains 
of  Shakespeare." 


REMINISCENCES  27 

Mr.  Beeton's  best  wishes.'  It  was  one  of 
Beeton's  Companion  Poets  and  bore  on  its  cover 
6  Books  of  Worth.'  With  the  exception  of  the 
little  copy  of  Thomas  a  Kempis  which  General 
Gordon  gave  to  me  as  he  was  starting  for 
Khartoum,  it  is  the  most  precious  of  all  my 
books.  It  has  been  with  me  everywhere.  In 
Russia,  in  Ireland,  in  Rome,  in  Prison,  it  has 
been  a  constant  companion." 

His  notebooks  full  of  copious  memoranda  are 
still  in  existence.  These  much  more  than  cover 
the  whole  ground  of  the  essay,  and  indicate  the 
thoroughness  which,  even  then,  was  one  of  his 
marked  characteristics.  That  "  solitary  success  "  was 
a  crisis  however  in  more  ways  than  one.  He  had 
overstrained  his  eyes,  through  excessive  application 
and  overstudy,  and  was  in  consequence  obliged  to 
cease  reading,  as  it  was  feared  for  some  time  that 
he  might  lose  his  sight.  But  as  with  all  his  earthly 
trials  in  after  years,  this  grew  to  be  an  added 
source  of  spiritual  strength.  He  wrote  of  it  long 
afterwards  in  his  Character  Sketch  of  Russell 
Lowell : 

"  This  little  book  reached  me  at  a  somewhat 
critical  time.  I  was  saturated  with  the  memories 
of  the  Puritans,  and  filled  with  a  deep  sense  of  the 
un worthiness  of  my  old  literary  ambitions.  My 
health,  impaired  by  overstudy,  affected  my  eyes, 
and  for  some  terrible  months  I  was  haunted  by 
the  consciousness  of  possible  blindness.  I  had 
to  give  up  reading  at  night-time  and  in  the  train, 


28  MY   FATHER 

and  by  way  of  occupation  I  committed  to  memory 
long  screeds  of  verse  —  Byron,  Longfellow, 
Coleridge  and  Campbell  being  special  favorites. 
All  chance  of  literary  success  seemed  to  fade  and 
disappear  with  my  dimming  sight,  and  I  looked 
out  on  life  in  a  sadder  and  more  serious  mood 
than  any  I  had  formerly  entertained.  It  was  then 
that  I  came  upon  Mr.  Lowell's  little-known  poem 
6  Extreme  Unction,'  which  I  find  marked  in  pencil 
— '  This  poem  changed  my  life.' 

"  It  may  seem  somewhat  fantastic  that  a  lad 
of  eighteen  should  have  appropriated  to  himself 
the  reproaches  which  the  poet  placed  in  the 
mouth  of  an  octogenarian.  But  youth  is  a  rare 
self-torturer.  With  my  enfeebled  health  and 
failing  eyesight,  an  oppressive  sense  of  having 
lived  for  myself  and  my  own  ambitious  day- 
dreams, it  did  not  seem  unnatural  then ;  it 
seemed  only  too  terribly  real.  I  don't  think 
any  four  lines  ever  printed  went  into  my  life  so 
deeply  as  these  :— 

"  Now  here  I  gasp ;  what  lose  my  kind, 

When  this  fast-ebbing  breath  shall  part  ? 
What  bands  of  love  and  service  bind 
This  being  to  the  world's  sad  heart  1 " 

"  These  questions  used  to  ring  in  my  ears 
night  and  day.  And  the  only  answer  that  came 
was  Richard's  bitter  death  cry : — 

"  There  is  no  creature  loves  me, 
And  if  I  die  no  one  will  pity  me." 

"All  this,  I  daresay,  was  very  morbid. 
Probably  few  lads  of  eighteen  had  more  relatives 


REMINISCENCES 

and  friends  to  love  and  pity  them.  I  was  one 
of  a  large  and  singularly  united  family,  and  I 
had  my  Sunday-school  class  besides.  But  there 
was  that  guilty  sense  of  having  lived  for  myself, 
of  having  had  my  ideal  of  life  on  the  plain  of 
personal  literary  success,  and  I  felt  I  deserved  to 
feel  all  that  Lowell's  octogenarian  felt. 

"At  the  same  time  this  remorseful  horror  would 
sometimes  abate,  owing  probably  to  occasional 
better  health,  and  then  an  immense  inspiration 
thrilled  me  from  the  lines : 

"  On  this  bowed  head  the  awful  Past, 
Once  laid  its  consecrating  hands  ; 
The  Future,  in  its  purpose  vast 

Paused,  waiting  my  supreme  commands." 

"  If  I  recovered,  and  my  eyesight  did  not  fail, 
perhaps,  after  all,  I  might  yet  live  to  better 
purpose.  To  what  purpose  ?  The  answer  came 
in  the  next  verse  : 

"  God  bends  from  out  the  deep,  and  says, 

1 1  gave  thee  the  great  gift  of  life  ; 
Wast  thou  not  called  in  many  ways  1 

Are  not  my  earth  and  heaven  at  strife  1 ' ' 

"The  idea  that  everything  wrong  in  the 
world  was  a  divine  call  to  use  your  life  in 
righting  it,  sank  deep  into  my  soul.  And  there, 
in  the  darkness  and  gloom  of  that  time  of  weak- 
ness and  trial,  I  put  away  from  me,  as  of  the 
Evil  One,  all  dreams  of  fame  and  literary 
ambitions  on  which  I  had  fed  my  boyhood,  and 
resolutely  set  myself  to  do  what  little  I  could, 
there  and  then,  where  I  was,  among  those  who 


MY   FATHER 

surrounded  me,  to  fulfil  '  the  trust  for  such  high 
uses  given.'  It  was  one  of  the  decisive  moments 
in  my  life.  Since  then  I  can  honestly  say  that 
1  have  never  regarded  literary  or  journalistic 
success  as  worth  a  straw,  excepting  in  so  far  as 
it  enabled  me  to  strike  a  heavier  blow  in  the 
cause  of  those  for  whom  I  was  called  to  fight. 

The  yearning  for  helpful  fellowship  with  my 
fellows  grew,  under  Lowell's  influence,  to  control 
my  life.  Living  in  a  village,  where  you  know 
everyone,  it  was  almost  with  a  sense  of  positive 
pain  that  I  would  find  myself  in  a  great  city,  and 
feel  that  of  all  the  hundred  thousands  around 
me,  I  did  not  know  one  !  To  know  that  of  all 
those  multitudes  you  knew  none,  had  helped 
none,  and  that  not  a  human  being  cared  in  the 
least  whether  you  lived  or  died,  maddened  into 
despair,  or  broke  your  heart  in  solitude,  was 
appalling  to  me.  There  seemed  something 
unnatural  about  it. 

"  How  well  I  remember,  night  after  night, 
looking  down  from  the  Manors  railway  station 
over  the  house-crowded  valley  at  the  base  of  All 
Saints'  Church,  Newcastle,  which  towered  above 
them  all,  all  black  and  empty,  like  the  vast 
sepulchre  of  a  dead  God,  and  thinking  that  behind 
every  lighted  window  which  gleamed  through  the 
smoky  darkness  there  was  at  least  one  human 
being  whose  heart  was  full  of  all  the  tragedies 
of  love  and  hate,  of  life  and  of  death,  and  yet 
between  them  and  me,  what  a  great  gulf  was 
fixed  !  How  could  bands  of  love  and  service  be 
woven  between  these  innumerable  units  so  as  to 


REMINISCENCES  31 

make  us  all  one  brotherhood  once  more  ?  There 
they  sat  by  lamp  and  candle — so  near,  and  yet,  in 
all  the  realities  of  their  existence,  as  far  apart  as 
the  fixed  stars.  And  there  grew  up  in  me, 
largely  under  Lowell's  influence,  a  feeling  as  if 
there  were  something  that  blasphemed  God  in 
whatever  interposed  a  barrier  impeding  the  free 
flow  of  the  helpful  sympathy  and  confident  in- 
tercourse between  man  and  man." 


CHAPTER  III 

REMINISCENCES     CONTINUED 

"  It  is  love  that  makes  difficult  things  easy  and  constrains  you 
to  do  things  that  otherwise  you  would  never  attempt. — 
W.  T.  STEAD. 

"  THEN  occurred  what  I  always  regard  as  my 
second  conversion ;  the  first  being  when  I  was 
at  school,  which  was  a  conversion  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  as  used  by  ordinary 
Christians,  meaning  a  sudden  deliverance  from 
the  weight^  horror,  and  consequence  of  sin,  by 
faith  in  the  intervention  and  sacrifice  of  Jesus 
Christ,  Who  practically  wiped  off  all  outstanding 
debts,  which  you  could  never  pay,  and  started  a 
new  life  in  you,  of  which  He  was  the  Source, 
the  Custodian,  and  Lord.  But  from  that  date 
down  to  1868  I  was  full  of  ambition.  I  wanted 
to  write  the  whole  history  of  the  Puritan  Move- 
ment, which  would  practically  piece  in  between 
where  Froude  left  off  the  History  of  England 
and  Macaulay  began  it.  That  was  the  dream 
of  my  life  for  some  years.  I  was  intensely 
ambitious,  with  a  personal  ambition  that  led  me 


REMINISCENCES  33 

to  wish  to  make  a  name  for  myself  and  to  be 
great  and  famous. 

"When  my  eyes  became  bad  and  I  had  to 
look  a  possible  blindness  in  the  face  1  had 
the  whole  of  Cromwell's  '  Life,  Letters,  and 
Speeches'  fermenting  in  my  head  and  it 
gradually  grew  upon  me  that  this  dream  of 
ambition  was  unworthy  and  un-  Christian.  Then 
I  took  refuge,  as  we  all  do,  in  a  second  position, 
and  attempted  to  make  out  that  I  did  not 'want 
to  write  this  History  so  much  to  make  a  name 
for  myself  as  to  do  justice  to  Cromwell,  etc.,  etc., 
which  was  largely  true,  but  I  gradually  woke  up 
to  a  conviction  that  all  that  feeling  was  wrong 
and  that  I  must  put  away  all  idea  of  ever  writing 
the  book,  or  of  making  a  name  for  myself,  and 
must  simply  set  to  work  and  labour  for  those 
who  were  around  me. 

"  As  I  was  forbidden  to  read  after  leaving  the 
office,  I  set  to  work  to  organise  social  and 
religious  agencies  in  the  village,  becoming  to  a 
certain  extent  a  kind  of  'lay-curate'  to  my 
father.  My  class  of  lads  in  the  Sunday  School 
was  a  social  microcosm  where  I  studied  human 
nature  and  the  organisation  of  society.  I  some- 
times think  that  I  have  hardly  gained  a  single 
idea  since  I  left  school.  I  have  learnt  a  great 
many  more  facts,  and  to  know  a  great  many 
more  people,  but  my  standpoint  or  outlook  upon 
life,  my  conception  of  what  is  possible  and  what 
ought  to  be  done,  in  other  words,  my  ideal  and 
objective,  were  fixed  by  the  time  I  was  twenty, 
and  I  have  never  since  seen  any  reason  to  alter 

D 


34  MY   FATHER 

them.  Of  course  there  have  been  endless  modifi- 
cations in  the  methods  by  which  I  sought  to  attain 
them,  but  I  am  to-day  what  1  was  in  1868." 

One  of  the  members  of  his  Boys'  Class  has  given 
the  following  affectionate  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  those  eventful  village  days,  which  have  born  so 
rich  a  harvest  in  so  many  lives. 

"  The  Club  Room,  Garden,  and  everything 
else  devised  for  the  benefit  of  the  lads  were 
originated  by  him,  they  were  all  managed  under 
his  direction  and  guidance,  and  he  was  the  life 
and  soul  of  them  all.  Then  as  now  he  did 
things  after  his  own  fashion,  arid  in  his  own  way, 
without  much  regard  to  the  orthodox  way  in 
which  things  were  usually  done.  For  example, 
on  '  Speaking  Sundays '  every  Sunday  scholar 
sat  enthralled  by  his  graphic  story  of  the  adven- 
tures of  two  Hebrew  children  during  the  Plagues 
in  Egypt,  but  the  older  teachers  would  have 
none  of  his  'concoctions'  and  'fiction'  there, 
and  put  their  foot  down.  Hence  the  exciting 
biography  of  Cora  and  Ada  was  brought  to  an 
abrupt  conclusion.  Again,  the  superintendent 
wished  the  lessons  to  be  taken  as  he  thought 
best,  but  even  then  W.  T.  Stead  believed  in  his 
own  plan  and  method  so  far  as  his  class  was 
concerned.  The  superintendent  insisted  and 
finally  ordered  both  teacher  and  class  to  the 
door.  The  lads  marched,  behind  their  teacher, 
from  the  far  end  of  the  school-room  as  proudly 
as  if  they  had  achieved  a  glorious  victory. 

"  His  theory  was  that  it  is  no  use  training  a 


REMINISCENCES  35 

child  the  way  he  should  go,  one  day  of  the  week, 
and  letting  someone  else  train  him  up  another 
way  the  remaining  six. 

"In  the  Sunday  class  which,  after  their 
summary  dismissal  from  the  school  met  in  the 
Club  Room,1  he  trained  the  boys  to  speak  by 
giving  them  a  text  and  sitting,  watch  in  hand, 
making  them  stand  up  and  f  hold  forth '  for  one 
or  two  minutes.  Those  minutes  at  first  seemed 
terribly  long,  At  the  Sunday  services  he  set 
them  round  a  table  in  a  square  pew  under  the 
pulpit,  with  pens,  ink,  and  books,  to  take  the 
sermon  down  in  outline,  afterwards  correcting 
their  summary  himself.  In  countless  ways  he 
helped  them  and  endeavoured  to  make  them  fit 
to  help  others." 

It  is  noteworthy  that  even  thus  early  the  dis- 
tinctive feature  of  his  teaching  was  individuality. 
He  sought  to  create  efficient  members  of  society, 
so  that  each  one  might  in  turn  become  a  focus  of 
independent  energy. 

To  return  to  the  Reminiscences. 

"  I  had  in  1865  and  1868,  written  two  leading 
articles,  one  on  the  assassination  of  President 
Lincoln  ;  the  other  on  the  disestablishment  of 
the  Irish  Church.  The  former  was  published  in 
a  little  Jarrow  weekly  paper,  the  other  was  pub- 
lished in  the  Sheffield  Independent.  But  after 
that  I  did  not  write  any  more  till  1870.  My 
eyes  got  better,  for  the  dimness  of  sight  was 

1  A  large  unused  kitchen  which  someone  had  lent  for  the  use 
of  the  boys'  club. 

D    2 


36  MY   FATHER 

simply  caused  by  nervous  exhaustion,  but  I 
never  contemplated  the  possibility  of  depending 
for  my  living  upon  my  pen." 

In  1867,  however,  before  he  was  quite  eighteen, 
his  budding  literary  ambitions  had  burst  into 
blossom  in  the  shape  of  a  wonderful  production 
entitled,  The  Magazinctum  ;  a  Journal  of  the  Stead 
Family,  of  which  he  was  editor  and  contributor-in- 
chief.  This  was  designed  for  private  circulation 
only  and  was  written  by  hand  on  sheets  of  paper, 
neatly  pasted  together,  with  a  limp  cardboard  cover. 
The  Magazinctum  ran  its  vigorous,  though  inter- 
mittent, course  for  about  five  years,  during  which 
period  ten  of  the  little  volumes  appeared.  It  was 
devoted  to  the  various  interests  and  adventures  of 
the  different  members  of  the  Stead  family  at  that 
time,  and  was  illustrated  by  many  pen  portraits  and 
sketches.  Here  is  the  preface  to  the  first  number, 
in  which  the  editorial  "  we "  but  thinly  disguises 
the  editorial  personality : 

THE  MAGAZINCTUM  :  A  Journal  of  the  Stead  Family. 
Preface. 

This  magazine  is  the  result  of  much  talking  and  scheming. 
After  dangling  before  the  eyes  of  the  family  for  nearly  twelve 
months  it  has  at  last  taken  the  tangible  form  in  which  it  now 
presents  itself. 

Magazinctum  will,  we  trust,  always  be  found  of  interest  to  its 
readers,  both  of  this  and  of  following  generations.  To  show  on 
wjiat  firm  ground  this  trust  is  founded,  we  need  only  mention  of 
what  it  will  consist. 

First  there  will  be  a  continued  story  running  through  the 
whole  year,  contributed  by  that  celebrated  authoress  Vida  Arnica. 


REMINISCENCES  37 

Her  name  will  be  well  known  to  our  readers  as  the  composer  of 
several  brilliant  poems,  and  that  fascinating  novel  "The 
Covenanters,"  This  alone  is  sufficient  to  insure  its  popularity, 
but  when  we  proceed  to  enumerate  the  various  other  attractions, 
it  will  present,  all  our  readers  will  be  satisfied  that  never  before 
in  the  annals  of  the  Steadian  gens  was  such  a  varied  and  delight- 
ful amount  of  literature  made  public. 

There  will  be  mechanical  devices,  instrumental  plans,  and 
many  other  outpourings  of  perfect  genius  from  him  who  bids  fair 
to  be  the  Sir  Isaac  of  the  race. 

It  is  certain  that  a  tale,  weirdly  romantic,  from  the  pen  of  a 
well-known  student  of  sensation  will  appear  every  month. 

The  patient  and  industrious  writer  known  by  the  name  of 
Hitchiedobler  will  detail  the  internal  organism  and  domestic 
government  of  a  well-known  house. 

Stories  illustrative  of  ancient  times  are  expected  from  the 
philological  member  of  the  race.  But  we  are  exceeding  the 
bounds  of  a  preface.  Time  would  fail  us  were  we  to  enumerate 
our  poets,  our  historians,  and  our  divines,  so  after  mentioning 
that  our  only  principle  is  "Utter  disregard  of  everything  uncon- 
nected with  the  Race,"  we  finish. 

W.  T.  SILCOATES. 

"  My  mother,"  the  Reminiscences  continue, 
"  whose  shaping  influence  upon  me  was  constant 
and  is  abiding,  had  conceived,  I  think  from  the 
reading  of  Johnson's  Lives  of  the  Poets,  a  mortal 
terror  of  any  human  being  ever  depending  for  the 
necessities  of  life  upon  literary  work,  and  when  I 
built  my  castles  in  the  air  at  this  period,  what  I 
dreamt  of  was  to  be  in  a  situation  where  I  should 
get  away  from  the  office  as  early  as  possible,  and 
have  my  nights  to  myself.  The  position  of  a 
bank  clerk  with  £150  a  year  and  freedom  to 
leave  the  bank  between  4  and  5,  seemed  to  me 
to  come  very  near  the  zenith  of  human  felicity. 

"  When  I  was  out  of  my  apprenticeship  I  was 


38  MY   FATHER 

engaged  as  junior  clerk  at  a  salary  of  £60  per 
annum,  in  the  same  office  where  I  had  served  my 
time." 

As  a  mark  of  approval,  my  Father's  employer 
presented  him  with  a  silver  watch  and  a  sum  of 
money.  The  money  was  spent  on  a  holiday  in 
Edinburgh,  where  he  took  his  sister  and  revelled 
with  eager  delight  in  the  scenes  with  which  Sir 
Walter  Scott  had  long  made  him  familiar  by  name. 
But  romance  was  busy  in  his  own  life  also,  for  his 
sister  and  he  were  joined  on  their  Scottish  holiday 
by  two  girl  friends,  Annie  and  Emma  Wilson,  of 
whom  the  latter  was  destined  in  the  fulness  of  time 
to  become  Mrs.  W.  T.  Stead. 

It  was  during  this  Scottish  holiday  that  he  had 
his  first  clairvoyant  experience.  He  relates  the 
incident  in  "  Real  Ghost  Stories." 

"  On  one  occasion  I  went  to  sleep  in  the  ruins 
of  a  haunted  castle  and  was  awakened  with  a 
shuddering  horror  that  I  shall  never  forget  as 
long  as  I  live. 

"  It  was  in  Hermitage  Castle,  Hermitage,  that 
grim  old  border  stronghold  which  stood  in  Liddes- 
dale,  not  many  miles  from  Riccarton,  that  most 
desolate  of  railway  junctions.  I  visited  it  when 
I  was  just  out  of  my  teens  with  a  mind  saturated 
with  legendary  lore  of  the  Scottish  Border.  I 
made  a  pilgrimage  to  Brankesome  Hall,  taking 
Hermitage  on  my  way.  I  write  this,  not  to 
maintain  the  objectivity  of  any  ghostly  haunting 
of  Hermitage  Castle,  but  to  show  that  although  it 
may  all  have  been  the  merest  delusion  of  a  sub- 


REMINISCENCES  39 

jective  character,  I  have  at  least  gone  through  an 
experience  which  enables  me  to  understand  what 
it  feels  like  to  be  in  a  haunted  house. 

"  When  I  visited  Hermitage  Castle  I  was  all 
alone,  with  my  memory  teeming  with  associations 
of  the  past.  I  unlocked  the  door  with  the  key, 
which  I  had  brought  with  me  from  the  keeper's 
cottage,  at  a  little  distance  down  the  valley.  As 
it  creaked  on  its  hinges  and  I  felt  the  chill  air  of 
the  ruin,  I  was  almost  afraid  to  enter.  Muster- 
ing my  courage,  however,  I  went  in  and  explored 
the  castle,  then  lying  down  on  the  mossy  bank  I 
gave  myself  up  to  the  glamour  of  the  past.  I 
must  have  been  there  an  hour  or  more,  when 
suddenly,  while  the  blood  seemed  to  freeze  down 
my  back,  I  was  startled  by  a  long  prolonged 
screech  over  my  head,  followed  by  a  noise  which 
I  could  only  compare  to  the  trampling  of  a 
multitude  of  iron-shod  feet  on  the  stone-paved 
doorway.  This  was  alarming  enough,  but  it  was 
nothing  to  the  horror  which  filled  me  when  I 
heard  the  heavy  gate  swing  on  its  hinges  with 
a  clang  which  for  the  moment  seemed  like  the 
closing  of  a  vault  in  which  I  was  entombed  alive. 
I  could  almost  hear  the  beating  of  my  heart.  The 
rusty  hinges,  the  creaking  of  the  door,  the  melan- 
choly and  unearthly  nature  of  the  noise,  and  the 
clanging  of  the  gate,  made  me  shudder  and  shiver 
as  I  lay  motionless,  not  daring  to  move,  arid  so 
utterly  crushed  by  the  terror  that  had  fallen  upon 
me  that  I  felt  as  if  I  were  on  the  very  verge  of 
death.  If  the  Evil  One  had  appeared  at  that 
moment  and  carried  me  off  I  should  have  re- 


40  MY    FATHER 

garded  it  as  the  natural  corollary  to  what  I  had 
already  heard.  Fortunately  no  sulphureous  visi- 
tant darkened  the  blue  sky  that  stretched  over- 
head, with  his  unwelcome  presence,  and  after  a 
few  minutes,  when  I  had  recovered  from  my 
fright,  1  ventured  into  the  echoing  doorway  to 
see  whether  or  not  I  was  really  a  prisoner. 
The  door  was  shut,  and  I  can  remember  to 
this  day  the  tremor  which  I  experienced  when 
I  laid  my  hand  upon  the  door  and  tried  whether 
or  not  it  was  locked.  It  yielded  to  my  hand, 
and  I  have  seldom  felt  a  sensation  of  more 
profound  relief  than  when  I  stepped  across  the 
threshold  and  felt  that  I  was  free  once  more. 
For  a  moment  it  was  as  if  I  had  been  delivered 
from  the  grave  itself  which  had  already  closed 
over  my  head. 

"  Of  course,  looking  back  on  this  after  a 
number  of  years,  it  is  easy  to  say  that  the  whole 
thing  was  purely  subjective.  An  overwrought 
fancy,  a  gust  of  wind  whistling  through  the 
crannies  and  banging  the  door  close,  were  quite 
sufficient  to  account  for  my  fright,  especially  as 
it  was  not  at  all  improbable  that  I  had  gone  to 
sleep  in  the  midst  of  the  haunted  ruins. 

"  So  I  reasoned  at  the  moment,  and  came 
back  and  stayed  another  hour  in  the  castle,  if 
only  to  convince  myself  that  I  was  not  afraid. 
But  neither  before  nor  after  that  alarm  did  any 
gust  of  wind  howl  round  the  battlements  with 
anything  approaching  to  the  clamour  which  gave 
me  such  a  fright.  One  thing  amuses  me  in 
looking  back  at  a  letter  which  I  wrote  at  the 


REMINISCENCES  41 

time,  describing  my  alarm.  I  say,  '  Superstition, 
sneer  you  ?  It  may  be.  I  rejoice  that  I  am 
capable  of  superstition ;  I  thought  it  was  dried  out 
of  me  by  high-pressure  civilisation.'  I  am  afraid 
that  some  of  my  critics  will  be  inclined  to  remark 
that  my  capacities  in  that  direction  stand  in  need 
of  a  great  deal  of  drying  up." 

The    Reminiscences    proceed    with   engaging 
candour : 

"  I  have  not  mentioned  all  the  love  affairs  1 
had  between  1861  and  1871.  I  need  not  say  that 
they  were  numerous.  But  I  should  mention  two 
things,  one  was  that  I  fell  in  love  with  my 
present  wife  when  I  was  about  thirteen,  in  a 
romantic,  distant,  kind  of  way.  Then  I  fell  in 
love  with  her  again  when  I  was  about  seventeen, 
but  as  she  was  about  my  own  age  I  did  not  make 
much  progress.  School  girls  of  seventeen  are  very 
difficult  to  get  on  with. 

"  One  of  the  most  useful  love  affairs  I  ever  had 
was  that  which  came  when  I  was  about  eighteen, 
when  the  sister  of  our  village  doctor  came  to  stay 
with  him.  She  was  about  twenty-eight  or  twenty- 
nine,  and,  finding  life  in  the  village  rather  dull, 
she  took  a  great  deal  of  notice  of  me.  She  was 
the  first  woman  outside  my  own  family  who  ever 
said  a  civil  word  to  me.  My  devotion  to  the 
other  girls  was  all  one-sided.  I  was  a  somewhat 
eccentric  youth  who  had  a  rooted  objection  to 
wearing  gloves,  and  always  preferred  to  run  rather 
than  walk  weekdays  and  Sundays,  and  I  re- 
member with  a  smile  the  spectacle  of  the  Minister's 


42  MY   FATHER 

eldest  son  running  home  as  soon  as  Chapel  was 
over,  on  the  blessed  Sabbath  morning,  when  the 
streets  were  crowded  with  people  leaving  their 
respective  places  of  worship,  at  as  hard  a  gallop  as 
his  legs  could  carry  him. 

"  It  was  thought  in  the  village  that  I  was  a 
little  '  daft,'  and  the  girls  did  not  care  to  receive 
the  attentions  of  a  suitor  who  was  more  or  less 
looked  dowrn  upon  and  ridiculed  by  local  public 
opinion. 

"However,  1  did  not  care.  I  liked  the  lift 
that  comes  from  running  as  hard  as  you  can,  and 
I  like  it  to  this  day. 

"  The  doctor's  sister  was  an  educated  lady 
who  lived  in  Scotland.  She  played  and  sang 
Scottish  airs,  and  I  think  she  was  the  only 
woman  I  have  ever  turned  over  music  for  at  the 
piano.  She  took  to  me  to  pass  the  time, 
probably,  but  I  fell  very  deeply  in  love  with  her 
and  she  was  the  first  woman  to  whom  I  ever 
said  the  word  '  Love.'  It  was  between  eleven  and 
twelve  o'clock.  We  were  setting  home.  The 
stars  were  shining  .  .  .  ! 

"  But  why  should  I  go  on  with  this  rambling 
reminiscence  ?  We  all  go  through  this,  and  I 
only  mention  it  in  order  to  lead  up  to  the  way 
in  which  she  helped  me.  Up  to  that  time  it 
had  been  always  more  or  less  of  an  effort  to  me 
to  write  letters.  1  would  write  essays  when  I 
set  myself  to  do  it.  But  I  always  preferred  to 
talk  rather  than  to  write,  having  a  greater  facility 
for  the  use  of  my  tongue  than  for  the  use  of  my 
pen.  After  some  months  of  very  delicious 


REMINISCENCES  43 

experience,  she  accepted  the  calf-love  of  the 
hobble- de-hoy  as  a  kind  of  pleasant  homage 
which  in  no  way  interfered  with  her  attachment 
to  a  Naval  officer  to  whom  she  was  engaged  to 
be  married.  When  she  left  our  village  for 
Edinburgh,  I  felt  as  if  the  sun  had  gone  down 
in  mid-heaven. 

"  Out  of  the  misery  of  that  parting  I  wrote 
her  immense  letters  three  times  a  week,  and  the 
exercise  and  the  straining  always  to  write  my 
very  best  did  me  more  good  than  almost  any- 
thing else.  I  often  advise  young  people  who 
come  to  me  now  and  ask  me  what  would  be  the 
best  school  in  which  to  learn  to  write  well — to 
fall  in  love  with  a  clever  woman  a  dozen  years 
older  than  themselves,  who  lives  at  a  distance 
from  them,  and  with  whom  they  can  only 
communicate  by  writing.  It  is  love  that  makes  1 
difficult  things  easy  and  constrains  you  to  do  • 
things  that  otherwise  you  would  never  attempt. 

"  This,  however,  is  a  digression  or  an  inter- 
lude. I  return  to  my  work.  About  1870,  I 
had  laid  very  much  upon  my  heart  the  misery  of 
the  tramps  or  vagrant  class.  They  used  to 
come  to  the  office  and  I  used  to  try  what  I 
could  do  in  the  way  of  helping  them.  I  re- 
member one  scoundrel  whom  I  helped,  a  very 
clever  scoundrel  he  was,  too.  I  gave  him  what  I 
could,  wrapped  him  up  in  an  old  coat,  gave  him 
an  old  Bible,  and  was  very  friendly  and  brotherly 
to  him.  When  he  learnt  he  had  got  as  much 
out  of  me  as  I  had  to  give  he  vanished,  carrying 
off  with  him  all  the  portable  property  of  his 


44  MY   FATHER 

fellow  lodger,  but  leaving  behind  him  as  a 
souvenir  my  poor  little  Bible  ! 

"Thinking  over  this  thing  I  came  to  the 
conclusion — which  I  suppose  everyone  must 
come  to — that  nothing  could  be  done  excepting 
by  association  and  by  organisation.  And  read- 
ing at  that  time  some  chance  paragraph  as  to 
the  way  in  which  the  Blackheath  Mendicity 
Society  had  attempted  to  grapple  with  the  evil 
in  its  district,  I  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Northern 
Daily  Express  advocating  the  formation  of  a 
charity  organisation  or  mendicity  society  in 
Newcastle.  The  editor  inserted  it  and  I  sent 
round  marked  copies  to  the  leading  people  in 
the  town  who  might,  I  thought,  be  induced  to 
take  an  interest  in  the  thing.  My  employer 
rather  liked  the  idea  and  seemed  disposed  to 
move  in  the  matter.  Someone  replied  to  my 
letter.  I  replied,  writing  a  longer  letter,  which 
to  my  great  delight  the  editor  put  in  as  a  lead- 
ing article.  We  got  up  a  town's  meeting.  My 
employer  undertook  to  act  as  secretary  on  condi- 
tion that  I  wrote  his  speeches  for  him  and  did 
all  that  sort  of  work.  And  so  the  C.O.S.  of 
Newcastle  came  into  being. 

"  I  believe  that  it  is  still  in  existence.  I 
became  consumed  by  a  great  zeal  to  establish 
charity  organisations  everywhere,  and  I  sent 
an  article  to  the  Sheffield  Independent^  urging 


1  The  Sheffield  Independent  writes:  "This  would  be  in  the 
days  of  the  Leader  family,  before  Sir  Henry  Lucy  wrote  the 
London  Letter.  At  that  time  Mr.  Foster  Frazer  was  junior 
reporter." 


REMINISCENCES  45 

that  they  should  found  one  there ;  only  part  of 
which  appeared. 

"About  that  time  the  Northern  Echo1  of 
Darlington,  a  new  halfpenny  paper,  had  just 
appeared,  or  was  about  to  appear.  As  it  was 
the  only  morning  paper  for  the  towns  round 
Preston  I  thought  it  was  a  good  opportunity, 
affording  a  useful  pulpit  in  which  to  preach  the 
doctrine  of  the  organisation  of  charity  and  of  a 
co-operative  way  of  dealing  with  the  unem- 
ployed. I  wrote  a  letter  to  the  editor,  which 
to  my  delight  he  put  in,  and  wrote  to  me 
thanking  me  for  my  contribution.  But  he  did 
not  put  it  in  exactly  as  it  was  written.  He 
put  in  several  sentences  of  his  own  from  which 
I  dissented,  and  I  wrote  to  tell  him  so.  This 
brought  about  a  correspondence  and  he  asked 
me  to  write  more.  That  marks  my  first 
initiation  into  journalism.  I  wrote  occasional 
notes  and  leaders,  and  a  series  of  articles 
upon  America  and  the  Americans.  The  article 
which  attracted  most  attention  was  one  about 
Christianity  and  Democracy.  The  proprietor 
of  the  paper  seeing  this  article  when  he  was 
abroad,  was  much  struck  with  it  and  made 
enquiries  as  to  the  writer. 

"  I  was  not  paid  for  any  of  those  contri- 
butions. After  having  written  for  about  nine 

1  The  Northern  Echo,  the  first  halfpenny  morning  newspaper 
published  in  this  country,  had  been  started  by  Mr.  J.  Hyslop  Bell 
in  the  year  1870  at  Darlington,  as  the  most  central  point  from 
which  to  reach  the  thriving  industrial  population  of  South 
Durham  and  Cleveland."  ("  The  M.P.  for  Russia.") 


46  MY   FATHER 

months  1  modestly  ventured  to  suggest  that 
as  I  was  writing  about  three  leaders  a  week, 
and  half-a-dozen  occasional  notes,  the  labourer 
might  be  worthy  of  his  hire !  The  editor 
replied  saying  he  was  very  sorry  but  there  was 
no  fund  available  to  pay  outside  contributors, 
and  that  if  I  insisted  upon  payment  he  would 
just  have  to  fall  back  upon  his  own  unaided  pen 
to  produce  all  the  editorial  matter  that  the 
paper  contained. 

"  He  sent  me  a  book  by  Miss  Yonge,  with 
a  shorthand  inscription  which  I  could  not 
understand  (having  no  knowledge  of  shorthand), 
but  which  I  afterwards  learnt  was  the  prayer  : 
'  May  your  Soul  be  bound  up  in  the  Bundle 
of  Life.'  And  that  was  the  only  payment — if 
payment  it  may  be  called — that  I  received  for 
all  the  literary  work  I  did  up  to  the  age  of 
twenty-one. 

"  I  still  had  no  intention  of  becoming  a 
journalist,  or  of  making  my  living  by 
journalism. 

"  But  one  day  I  was  much  astonished  by  a 
visit  of  a  stranger  who  came  to  the  office  (on 
the  Quayside,  Newcastle),  and  who  turned  out 
to  be  J.  Hyslop  Bell  of  the  Northern  Echo. 
After  a  few  preliminary  words  he  offered  me 
the  editorship  of  the  Northern  Echo  at  a 
salary  of  £150  a  year,  I  asked  if  the  editor 
were  leaving.  He  said  he  was  going  to  leave, 
and  that  his  place  had  to  be  filled.  I  said  I 
would  take  no  further  steps  until  I  had 
communicated  with  him,  as  he  was  my  friend. 


REMINISCENCES  47 

Mr.  Bell  demurred  a  little  but  finally  gave  way. 
I  wrote  to  the  editor  and  told  him  of  the 
offer  that  had  been  made,  and  said  that  if  it 
would  in  any  way  help  him  for  me  to  refuse 
to  entertain  the  idea,  I  would  refuse.  He 
said  that  it  would  not  make  any  difference  as 
he  was  going  to  leave  anyhow." 

But  my  Father  would  also  consult  with  his  parents 
before  deciding  anything.  They  do  not  appear 
to  have  consented  very  readily,  for  he  relates 
afterwards  that  his  father  "  had  very  grave  doubts 
as  to  the  wisdom  of  his  going  on  to  the  Press."  He 
finally  made  his  own  decision,  however,  and  the  die 
was  cast.  It  was  the  same  all  through  his  life.  He 
consulted  everybody — from  Cabinet  Ministers  down 
to  office-boys;  from  Empresses  to  charwomen, — 
but  invariably  ended  by  doing  exactly  as  he  pleased. 
He  loved  to  ventilate  every  subject  thoroughly,  and 
to  study  it  from  every  possible  point  of  view,  in  the 
working  out  of  his  ethical  belief  that  there  is  in  most 
things  a  kind  of  a  fundamental  bed-rock  on  which 
it  is  possible  for  all  mankind  to  be  in  agreement. 
He  was  ever  striving  to  find  this  common  meeting- 
ground  in  everything  that  pertains  to  human  life 
and  actions.  "  If  humanity  lived  on  a  true  basis  of 
brotherhood,  and  professing  Christians  lived  accord- 
ing to  Christian  ethics,"  he  once  said,  "  it  ought  to 
be  perfectly  possible  and  natural  to  seek  sympathy 
and  advice  from  the  first  stranger  you  meet  in  the 
street ! " 

"  And  then,"  he  continues, "  came  negotiations 


48  MY   FATHER 

during  the  course  of  which  I  think  I  once  or 
twice  refused  to  go,  but  finally  agreed,  under 
very  strict  conditions.  1  still  have  the  old  agree- 
ment at  home.  I  was  to  be  paid  £150  a  year 
and  have  a  fortnight's  holiday.  I  was  not  to  be 
required  to  write  anything  that  was  opposed  to 
my  convictions.  I  was  never  to  be  required  to 
do  any  Sunday  work  whatever.  And  I  was 
never  to  be  expected  to  wait  later  than  9.0  for  a 
subject  for  a  leading  article,  as  I  had  to  spare  my 
health  from  strain.  I  never  observed  this  stipu- 
lation, and  always  worked  late  from  the  very 
first.'7 

He  quaintly  relates  apropos  of  this  momentous 
decision,  by  which  he  was  first  launched  into  journ- 
alism, and  speaking  of  the  books  which  through  life 
had  had  the  greatest  influence  over  him. 

"After  I  left  school  the  Book  of  Proverbs 
influenced  me  most  and  1  remember,  when  1 
was  first  started  on  editorship,  reading  all  the 
Proverbs  relating  to  kings,  as  affording  the  best 
advice  I  could  get  anywhere  as  to  the  right 
discharge  of  editorial  duties." 

His  own  ideals  of  editorship  and  journalism  find 
their  best  expression  in  what  he  wrote  many  years 
afterwards  concerning  James  Russell  Lowell  and 
the  "  Pious  Editor's  Creed." 

Long  before  he  won  the  "  Prize "  volume  of 
poems,  and  when  he  was  little  more  than  a  boy  of 
fifteen,  he  had  come  across  a  "yellow-backed 


REMINISCENCES  49 

shilling  edition  of  the  Biglow  Papers,  lying  side-by- 
side  with  a  well-thumbed  copy  of  Artemus  Ward 
as  a  specimen  of  American  humour,"  and  of  this  he 
says  :  "  It  was  not  the  humour  of  the  delicious  verse 
that  made  a  dint  in  my  mind  .  .  .  but  I  think  I  can 
trace  the  first  '  set '  of  my  mind  in  a  journalistic 
direction  to  reading  the  '  Pious  Editor's  Creed.' ' 

Of  the  "  Pious  Editor's  Creed,"  he  adds  elsewhere  : 
"  I  feel  to-day,  as  I  transcribe  those  words,  as  if, 
all  my  life  long,  ever  since  I  read  them,  I  had 
been  doing  little  else  but  trying,  as  best  I  could, 
to  circulate  and  propagate  the  ideas  contained  in 
this  preface.  All  that  is  real  and  true  in  what 
Matthew  Arnold  called  '  The  New  Journalism,' 
which  he  said  I  had  invented,  is  there  in  germ. 
That  great  ideal  of  the  editor  as  the  '  Captain  of 
our  Exodus  into  the  Canaan  of  a  truer  social 
order'  still  glows  like  a  pillar  of  fire  amid  the 
midnight  gloom  before  the  journalists  of  the 
world." 

No  apology  is  therefore  necessary  to  the  reader 
for  quoting  from  Lowell's  celebrated  Preface  : 

PREFACE  TO  THE  "  Pious  EDITOR'S  CREED." 

I  know  of  no  so  responsible  position  as  that  of  the  public 
journalist.  The  editor  of  our  day  bears  the  same  relation  to 
his  time  that  a  clerk  bore  to  the  age  before  the  invention  of 
printing.  Indeed,  the  position  which  he  holds  is  that  which  the 
clergyman  should  hold  even  now.  But  the  clergyman  chooses  to 
walk  off  to  the  extreme  edge  of  the  world,  and  to  throw  such  seed 
as  he  has  clear  over  into  that  darkness  which  he  calls  the  Next 
Life.  As  if  Next  did  not  mean  Nearest,  and  as  if  any  life  were 
nearer  than  that  immediately  present  one  which  boils  and  eddies 
all  round  him  at  the  caucus,  the  ratification  meeting,  and  the 

E 


50  MY   FATHER 

polls  !  Who  taught  him  to  exhort  men  to  prepare  for  eternity, 
as  for  some  future  era  of  which  the  present  forms  no  integral 
part  1  The  furrow,  which  Time  is  even  now  turning,  runs  through 
the  Everlasting,  and  in  that  must  he  plant,  or  nowhere.  Yet  he 
would  fain  believe  and  teach  that  we  are  going  to  have  more  of 
eternity  than  we  have  now.  This  going  of  his  is  like  that  of 
the  auctioneer,  on  which  gone  follows  before  we  have  made  up  our 
minds  to  bid  .  .  . 

Meanwhile,  see  what  a  pulpit  the  editor  mounts  daily,  some- 
times with  a  congregation  of  fifty  thousand  within  reach  of  his 
voice,  and  never  so  much  as  a  nodder,  even,  among  them.  And 
from  what  a  Bible  can  he  choose  his  text — a  Bible  which  needs  no 
translation,  and  which  no  priest-craft  can  shut  and  clasp  from  the 
laity — the  open  volume  of  the  world,  upon  which,  with  a  pen  of  sun- 
shine or  destroying  fire,  the  inspired  Present  is  even  now  writing 
the  annals  of  God  !  Methinks  the  editor  who  should  understand 
his  calling  and  be  equal  thereto,  would  truly  deserve  that  title 
which  Homer  bestows  upon  princes.  He  would  be  the  Moses 
of  our  nineteenth  century ;  and  whereas  the  old  Sinai,  silent  now, 
is  but  a  common  mountain  stared  at  by  the  elegant  tourist  and 
crawled  over  by  the  hammering  geologist,  he  must  find  his  tables 
of  the  new  law  here  among  factories  and  cities  in  this  wilderness 
of  Sin  (Numbers  xxxiii.  v.  12.1)  called  the  Progress  of  Civilisa- 
tion, and  be  the  captain  of  our  Exodus  into  the  Canaan  of  a 
truer  social  order. 

There  was  great  lamentation  in  the  village 
when  my  Father  left  home  for  Darlington.  One 
can  imagine  the  prayers  and  blessings  which 
followed  him  from  the  parental  roof-tree,  and  the 
pride  with  which  the  village  learnt  that  he  was  the 
"  youngest  editor  in  England." 

"  It  seemed  then  as  though  the  world  would 
stand  still,"  writes  an  old  member  of  his  Boys' 
Club.  "  But  the  severance  was  gradual,  and  he 

1  "  And  they  took  their  journey  out  of  the  wilderness  of  Sin, 
and  encamped  in  Dophkah." 


REMINISCENCES  (Jl 

so  managed  matters  that  most  of  his  projects 
went  on  as  before  ....  he  was  beloved  by 
every  villager  in  Howden,  both  churchgoer  and 
non-churchgoer  alike  ....  as  a  result  of  his 
work  and  influence  the  whole  village  was  eager 
to  stand  by  him  through  good  and  ill  report." 

When  he  came  home  for  the  weekends  from 
Darlington,  a  small  crowd  of  boys  and  girls 
awaited  him  at  the  railway-station,  and  "  escorted 
him  home  in  one  wide  line,"  eagerly  relating 
the  news  of  the  week,  and  clamouring  for  his 
approval. 

He  became  editor  of  the  Northern  Echo  in  1871    I 
and  remained  there  until  1880. 

And  within  that  nine  years  span  much  took 
place  that  was  to  bear  great  fruit  in  after  time. 
There  were  the  Bulgarian  atrocities,  which  led  to 
his  correspondence  with  Gladstone  and  Freeman 
and  to  the  final  shaping  of  his  Russian  policy — a 
policy  to  which  he  was  faithful  all  his  life.  There 
were  his  visits  to  London  and  his  first  personal 
meeting  with  Gladstone  and  Carlyle,  great  events 
these  in  the  life  of  an  eager,  youthful  aspirant  in 
the  literary,  journalistic,  and  political  world.  But 
the  event  of  greatest  personal  importance  during 
his  life  at  Darlington  was  his  engagement  and 
marriage  with  Miss  Emma  Lucy  Wilson,  his  old 
playmate,  daughter  of  Mr.  Henry  Wilson  of 
Howden-on-Tyne,  to  which  in  his  Reminiscences 
occurs  this  brief  but  characteristic  reference  : 

"On  June  tenth,  1873,  I   married   my  wife, 

E  2 


52  MY   FATHER 

whom  I  had  fallen  in  love  with  for  the   third 
time." 

For  his  marriage  he  compiled  a  special  service 
"  adapted  to  modern  requirements,"  in  which  the 
challenging  word  "  obey "  was  omitted  by  the 
express  stipulation  of  the  bride-elect. 

During  his  bachelor  days  in  Darlington  he  lived 
in  lodgings,  having  found  ideal  quarters  on  the 
outskirts  of  the  town,  but  he  was  obliged  to  give 
up  Flora  Cottage,  as  the  house  was  named,  a  few 
months  before  his  marriage,  and  for  the  remainder 
of  the  time  he  lived  in  the  town  itself.  The  shut- 
in  atmosphere  of  a  street,  with  its  "  rows  of  slated 
hideousness"  was  as  obnoxious  to  him  as  it  was 
novel,  and  he  plaintively  pulled  down  the  window 
blinds  of  his  room  in  order  to  shut  out  the  "  view  " 
of  the  brick  walls  opposite. 


CHAPTER  IV 

REMINISCENCES     CONTINUED 

"  In  the  world's  great  field  of  battle  no  duty  is  higher  than  to 
keep  the  ranks  of  the  forces  of  Light  well  filled  with  recruits. 
It  is  to  no  holiday  that  our  offspring  are  called — rather  is  it  a 
combat  long  and  stern,  ending  in  inevitable  death." — W.  T.  STEAD. 

"  LIVING  two  miles  out  of  Darlington,1  we 
saw  few  visitors.  I  rode  into  town  after  dark, 
returning  at  two  or  three  in  the  morning. 
The  life  of  the  little  household  was  well  under 
way  before  I  woke,  but  all  the  rest  of  the 
day  we  spent  together." 

A  year  of  this  quiet  domestic  happiness :  and 
then  "  the  deepest  and  sweetest  of  all  human 
experiences." 

"It  is  nearly  thirty-four  years,"  he  wrote, 
long  afterwards,  "  since  my  wife  and  I  received 
my  son  from  God,  as  the  pledge  and  seal  of 
our  mutual  love.  During  the  first  hour  of 
agony  and  alarm  preceding  his  birth  we  were 

1  The  house  to  which  he  took  his  bride  was  called  Grainey  Hill, 
a  house  surrounded  by  trees  and  situated  on  the  outskirts  of 
Darlington. 


54  MY   FATHER 

absolutely  alone  in  a  house  in  the  country, 
two  miles  from  the  nearest  doctor,  for  whom 
our  little  maid  of  fourteen  had  been  dispatched 
in  haste.  As  if  it  were  yesterday  I  recall  how 
his  mother  hovered  on  the  brink  of  death  in 
order  to  give  our  son  the  gift  of  life. 

"  Of  all  things  in  the  world  the  responsibility 
of  parentage  is  at  once  the  greatest  and  the 
least  regarded.  With  most  people  it  is  con- 
sidered only  as  a  possible,  not  by  any  means 
always  a  desired,  corollary  of  the  indulgence  of 
passionate  desire.  It  was  not  so  with  us.  To 
summon  an  immortal  soul  into  being — what 
human  act  is  comparable  to  this?  Even  if 
the  conscious  life  of  the  individual  ceased  at 
death,  the  responsibility  of  perpetuating  the 
existence  of  a  race,  with  all  its  immeasurable 
possibilities  of  sin  and  suffering,  is  one  from 
which  the  boldest  might  recoil.  But  the  only 
effective  way  of  improving  the  lot  of  man  is  to 
rear  up  a  new  generation  of  better  stock.  .  .  . 
•  In  the  world's  great  field  of  battle  no  duty 
is  higher  than  to  keep  the  ranks  of  the  forces 
of  Light  well  filled  with  recruits.  It  is  to  no 
holiday  that  our  offspring  are  called — rather  is 
it  a  combat  long  and  stern,  ending  in  inevitable 
death. 

"  These  considerations  weighed  much  with  us 
before  marriage,  and  it  can  therefore  be  well 
imagined  with  what  anxiety  we  awaited  the 
advent  of  the  little  one  who  was  to  carry  on 
in  the  next  generation  the  warfare  to  which  he 
was  dedicated  before  his  birth.  He  was  the 


MY  FATHER,  1873,  WHEN  EDITOR  or  THE  "  NORTHERN  ECHO. 


REMINISCENCES  55 

child  of  many  prayers,  not  only  those  of  his 
parents,  for  he  was  the  first  grandchild  in  either 
family.  Reared  in  the  simple  faith  which 
regards  the  fruit  of  the  womb  as  His  reward, 
we  both  of  us  prayed  in  all  sincerity  that  our 
marriage  might  be  childless  unless  the  children, 
each  and  all  from  birth  up,  were  loyal  servants 
of  their  Heavenly  Father.  When  our  boy 
was  born  we  felt  with  her  who  in  the  olden 
days  exclaimed :  '  I  have  gotten  a  manchild 
from  the  Lord.' 

"  We  named  him  after  his  grandfather.  When 
he  was  publicly  dedicated  at  the  old  chapel  in  ! 
baptism  we  received  the  solemn  admonition 
from  my  father's  lips,  '  Take  this  child  and 
bring  him  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition 
of  the  Lord."  .  .  . 

"  In  such  wise  came  Willie  into  our  home,  and 
in  such  spirit  did  we  undertake  the  task  entrusted 
to  our  care.  .  .  .  Other  children  followed,  and 
before  we  came  up  to  London  in  1881,  we  had 
three  sons  and  one  daughter.  My  wife  nursed 
all  of  them  and  we  were  between  us  their  teachers 
and  their  playmates.  We  had  no  governess  in 
those  days.  My  wife  taught  them  their  lessons, 
made  their  clothes,  baked  and  washed,  and  did 
all  the  housework  with  the  assistance  of  a  single 
servant.  I  was  with  them  constantly  when  I 
was  not  busy  with  my  journalistic  work,  in 
which,  in  addition  to  her  household  duties,  my 
wife  acted  as  my  only  secretary  and  assistant. 

"  There  were  stormy  days  even  in  those  halcyon 
times.  It  has  ever  been  my  fate  to  be  called  to 


56  MY    FATHER 

try  to  stem  the  tide  of  popular  fury.  My  first 
experience  was  when  in  1876-8  I  had  to  act  as 
Mr.  Gladstone's  humble  lieutenant  in  keeping 
the  North  of  England  as  far  as  possible  immune 
from  the  Jingo  madness  that  raged  and  clamoured 
for  war  with  Russia. 

"  One  terrible  night  when  the  flood  was  at  its 
height  and  I  was  threatened  with  death  as  a 
Russian  spy,  by  anonymous  scribes,  and  it  was 
loudly  declared  that  at  the  first  British  reverse 
in  the  expected  war  my  office  would  be  gutted 
by  the  mob  hunting  for  the  traitor's  life,  I 
remember  walking  home  at  midnight  through 
the  fields,  wondering  whether  this  sacrifice  would 
be  exacted  from  me.  When  I  reached  home  my 
wife  was  slumbering  peacefully  with  her  baby  in 
her  arms.  I  remember  bending  over  them  in  a 
sudden  paroxysm  of  fear  as  to  what  would  become 
of  her  and  my  poor  children  if  the  worst  befell. 
But  I  thought  of  the  thousands  of  other  mothers 
and  children  who  would  be  left  widowed  and 
fatherless  if  war  broke  out,  and  the  dread 
passed.  Ellice  Hopkins  said  somewhere  that  the 
devil  usually  comes  to  a  man  in  the  shape  of  his 
wife  and  children.  I  can  gratefully  say  that 
never  once  in  all  the  stormy  trials  and  personal 
perils  of  my  married  life  have  my  wife  and 
children  ever  by  word  or  deed  endeavoured  to 
dissuade  me  by  considerations  for  their  safety  or 
their  comfort  to  flinch  from  what  I  believed  to 
be  the  path  of  duty." 

In    his    last    published   book,   "The   M.P.   for 


REMINISCENCES  57 

Russia,"  he  describes  very  minutely  the  events 
which  led  to  the  famous  Atrocity  Agitation  of 
1876.  This  splendid  protest  on  behalf  of  a  common 
humanity  followed,  as  thunder  follows  the  light- 
ning, upon  a  letter  in  the  Daily  News  from  Mr. 
MacGahan,  special  correspondent  of  that  paper, 
describing  the  terrible  atrocities  committed  by  the 
Turk  in  Bulgaria. 

From  the  North  of  England  came  the  first 
ringing  response  voicing  itself  in  passionate 
columns  in  the  "brave  little  Northern  Echo."1 

"Mr.  MacGahan's  vivid  word-picture  of  the 
hecatomb  of  skulls,  of  the  outraged  and 
massacred  women,  of  the  butchered  babes  at 
Batak,  was  flung  with  a  glare  of  journalistic 
limelight  before  the  eyes  of  a  shuddering  nation. 
Parliament  was  not  sitting.  The  natural  leaders 
of  the  nation  were  scattered  far  and  wide  o'er 
moor  and  mountain.  But  here  and  there  all 
over  the  country,  but  chiefly  in  the  earnest 
North,  were  to  be  found  men  who  had  long 

1  Looking  back  upon  the  period  when  I  was  a  young  man  of 
seven-and-twenty,  I  remember  with  gratitude  the  part  which  I 
was  enabled  to  play  in  rousing  the  North  of  England  and  in  sup- 
porting Mr.  Gladstone  in  his  protests  against  a  threatened  war 
against  Russia  on  behalf  of  the  Turks.  Both  Mr.  Gladstone  and 
Mr.  Bright  repeatedly  recognised  the  services  which  I  rendered  to 
the  cause  of  Peace  in  that  campaign,  and  it  was  my  proud 
privilege  to  be  one  of  the  three  Englishmen  who  received  the  thanks 
of  the  first  Bulgarian  Assembly  for  the  services  which  I  had 
rendered  to  the  cause  of  Bulgarian  independence. 

The  three  Englishmen  were,  Mr.  Gladstone,  the  Editor  of  the 
Daily  News,  and  W.  T.  Stead. 


58  MY  FATHER 

been  testifying  to  the  iniquity  of  the  Turkish 
Alliance  and  the  duty  of  endeavouring  to  make 
friends  with  Russia.  Cobden  had  taught  this 
doctrine  from  before  the  time  of  the  Crimean 
War.  John  Bright  had  always  been  anti-Turk 
and  pro-Russian.  But  the  party  leaders,  from 
Mr.  Gladstone  downwards,  were  all  more  or  less 
compromised  by  the  Crimean  War.  Mr.  Free- 
man was  conspicuous  among  the  men  of  letters 
who  were  zealous,  even  to  slaying,  against  the 
Ottoman  horde.  The  disciples  of  these  men  were 
to  be  found  all  over  Great  Britain,  and  when  Mr. 
MacGahan's  letter  appeared  they  saw  that  their 
hour  had  come.  These  Stalwarts,  no  longer 
mere  voices  crying  in  the  wilderness,  were  ready 
instantly  to  give  articulate  expression  and  prac- 
tical objective  to  what  would  otherwise  have 
been  the  blind,  inarticulate  horror  of  the 
nation  .... 

"The  first  town's  meeting  held  in  Britain 
after  the  publication  of  Mr.  MacGahan's  letters 
was  summoned  at  Darlington.  It  was  crowded, 
indignant,  and  unanimous.  Similar  towns'  meet- 
ings followed  in  rapid  succession  in  Durham 
and  Yorkshire.  In  reporting  the  temper  of  the 
first  of  these  meetings  to  Mr.  Gladstone  I  im- 
plored him  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  what 
promised  to  be  an  irresistible  movement  in 
favour  of  the  emancipation  of  Bulgaria.  Most 
of  the  North-Country  towns  had  held  their 
meetings  and  repudiated  the  Turkish  Alliance 
before  Mr.  Gladstone  published  his  pamphlet 
on  the  "  Bulgarian  Horrors."  It  was,  as  he 


REMINISCENCES  59 

himself     said,     "like     Inkermann,     a    soldiers 
battle." 

"It  was  in  reply  to  a  letter  of  mine  announcing 
that  a  second  series  of  meetings  was  to  be  held 
in  the  North  in  support  of  the  liberation  of  the 
Slavs,  that  Mr.  Gladstone  wrote  me  the  following 
letter : 

"FORD  CASTLE, 

CORNHILL, 
NORTHUMBERLAND, 
Sept.  30th,  1876. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, 

I  am  not  surprised  that  the  energy  of  the 
North  should  take  the  lead  in  a  supplemental 
movement  as  it  did  to  a  great  extent  in  the 
former  one. 

Before  blaming  the  Servians  for  rejecting  the 
prolongation  of  the  quasi-armistice,  we  may 
fairly  remember  that  when  they  asked  for  a 
suspension  the  Turks  delayed  and  delayed  their 
answer  for  a  fortnight,  I  think,  and  only  granted 
it  when  they  had  seemingly  lost  all  chance  of 
further  military  successes. 

The  independence  of  Servia  is  a  point  on  which 
I  could  not  commit  myself,  but  a  public  meeting 
is  more  free  than  I  am.  It  appears  that  the 
Government  is  now  tenaciously  working  out  a 
policy  in  which  Lord  Beaconsfield  has  announced 
at  Aylesbury  that  they  have  not  the  support 
of  the  people  of  England — and  of  which  Lord 
Derby  has  avowed  that  they  will  probably  achieve 
it  before  Parliament  could  meet. 

I  drop  these  remarks,  from  which  it  may  be 


60  MY   FATHER 

better  not  to  quote  now,  as  my  name  is  rather 
often  before  the  public ;  but  the  acute  discern- 
ment with  which  your  articles  are  written  needs 
no  help  from  me. 

Your  faithful  servant, 

W.  E.  GLADSTONE." 

Another  of  his  correspondents  in  those  stirring 
days  was  the  famous  historian  Edward  A.  Freeman, 
whose  anti-Turkish  vehemence  expressed  itself  in 
terms  of  the  most  extraordinarily  fierce  invective. 

The  close  touch  with  Gladstone  continued. 
Here,  for  instance,  is  another  of  "  The  G.O.M.'s 
brief  incisive  words  of  command  :— 

"  HAWARDEN, 
Nov.  19^.,  1876. 

I  look  upon  the  mission  of  Lord  Salisbury  as 
a  contradiction  to  the  speech  of  the  Prime 
Minister  at  the  Guildhall,  and  if  you  meet  again 
I  venture  to  hope  you  will,  while  speaking  plainly 
on  the  purposes  in  yiew,  give  to  that  mission  a 
word  of  goodwill." 

Another  meeting  was  held  in  Darlington  and 
the  resolutions  forwarded  to  Mr.  Gladstone.  He 

replied : 

"  HAWARDEN, 
Nov.,  1876. 

I  view  with  extreme  satisfaction  that  energy  of 
conviction  and  character  which  leads  the  people 
of  Darlington  to  watch  with  an  unceasing 
vigilance  the  course  of  the  Eastern  Question,  and 
thus  to  confute  the  pretence  of  those  who  think 
so  ill  of  the  people  of  this  country  as  coolly  to 


REMINISCENCES  61 

assert  that  in  the  interval  between  September 
and  November  they  have  changed  their  minds." 

It  was  in  the  summer  of  1876  that  Madame  Olga 
Novikoff,  "  the  unofficial  Representative  of  the 
Russian  Nation"  (the  M.P.  for  Russia,  as  Lord 
Beaconsfield  named  her)  was  visiting  Sumerlease, 
the  residence  of  Mr.  E.  A.  Freeman.  Mr.  Freeman 
put  into  her  hand  a  copy  of  the  Northern  Echo,  and 
she  was  immensely  thrilled  by  the  verve  and  passion 
of  its  editor's  leading  articles  on  the  situation  in 
the  Near  East.  Her  own  ardent  espousal  of  the 
Slavonic  cause  had  been  deepened  almost  to  frenzy 
by  the  death  of  her  beloved  brother  Nicholas 
Kireeff,  which  had  taken  place  only  a  few  weeks 
before.  An  officer  in  the  Guards,  he  was  the  first 
Russian  volunteer  who  fell  fighting  for  the  Christian 
Slavs  against  "  a  vast  army  of  Asiatic  Hordes  from 
three-quarters  of  the  Globe,"  becoming  for  his  men 
the  almost  sainted  hero  of  a  hundred  tales  of 
chivalry  and  romance,  none  wilder  than  the  actual 
details  of  his  own  brief  brilliant  career  and  his 
thrilling  death.  On  reading  the  articles  in  the 
Northern  Echo  wherein  the  heroism  of  the  Russian 
volunteers  in  Servia,  and  of  Nicholas  Kireeff  in 
particular,  was  made  the  stirring  text  of  a  modern 
Odyssey,  Madame  Novikoff  entered  into  corres- 
pondence with  my  Father  and  eventually  invited 
him  to  call  upon  her  in  London.  So  began  a 
friendship  between  them,  one  of  the  many  friend- 
ships which  so  deeply  interlaced  his  life,  an 
"  Entente  Cordiale,"  which,  to  quote  his  own  words, 


62  MY   FATHER 

"  although  subjected  to  many  violent  strains, 
chiefly  arising  from  difference  of  opinion  on  the 
subject  of  religious  freedom,  has  never  been 
interrupted  for  a  single  week." 

"  Mr.  Gladstone's  pamphlet  on  the  '  Bulgarian 
Horrors,'  which  followed  the  agitation  in  the 
North  of  England,"  says  my  Father,  "  marked  his 
(Mr.  Gladstone's)  return  to  the  leadership  of  the 
progressive  forces  of  the  nation,  and  signified  his 
acceptance  of  the  responsibility  for  guiding, 
directing,  and  controlling  the  Atrocity  Agitation. 
It  is  difficult  to  make  any  of  those  who  did  not 
live  in  the  midst  of  that  great  moral  crisis 
realise  the  enthusiasm  and  passionate  devotion 
with  which  Mr.  Gladstone's  action  was  hailed  by 
the  majority  of  the  English  people.  It  was 
almost  as  the  descent  of  an  angel  from  Heaven 
to  succour  the  sorely-pressed  host  who  was  con- 
tending for  justice  and  liberty  against  enormous 
odds.  To  me  it  was  a  boon  unspeakable.  I 
had  headed  the  forlorn  hope,  hardly  daring  to 
hope  for  success.  And  now  the  greatest  in  all 
the  land,  our  dread  Achilles,  had  quitted  his  tent 
and  was  summoning  the  nation  to  the  fray. 
The  emotion  this  kindles  naturally  gave  warmth 
and  colour  to  the  scene  in  which  it  was  my  good 
fortune  first  to  see  Mr.  Gladstone  face  to  face, 
and  to  listen  to  the  fiery  eloquence  of  one  of  the 
greatest  and  most  momentous  of  all  his 
orations." 

The  Speech  was   addressed  to  Mr.  Gladstone's 
own  constituents  on  Blackheath  Common. 


REMINISCENCES  63 

The  following  account  of  this  momentous 
occasion  is  taken  from  the  record  of  his  im- 
pressions, published  in  the  Northern  Echo  at  the 
time,  and  later  in  The  Christian  Endeavour  World, 
America. 

"  I  travelled  all  night  up  to  London  from 
Darlington  in  order  to  be  present  at  that  historic 
occasion.  It  was  my  first  political  pilgrimage  to 
the  capital  of  the  Empire,  the  first  occasion  on 
which  I  was  conscious  of  playing  a  part  in  the 
making  of  history  as  well  as  the  first  time  that  I 
was  to  hear  Gladstone.  Upon  the  issue  of  that 
day's  meeting  peace  or  war  might  depend.  Our 
traditional  Alliance  with  the  Turks  was  at  stake, 
and  on  Mr.  Gladstone's  success  depended  the 
hopes  of  Bulgarian  freedom. 

"  The  journey  up  to  town  was  one  of  sleepless 
excitement.  The  line  from  Darlington  passes 
through  York  and  Peterborough,  and  so  crosses 
the  western  edge  of  the  Fenlands.  As  the  train 
swept  by  the  level  Fens,  with  their  crowds  of 
stirring  memories  of  olden  times,  when  our 
fathers  from  Hereward  to  Cromwell  battled 
nobly  for  the  cause  of  liberty  and  justice,  the 
sun  was  still  streaming  down  floods  of  golden 
light  upon  cottage,  farmstead,  and  village  church, 
encouraging  the  hope  that  the  weather  would  be 
propitious  that  afternoon  when  another  blow  was 
to  be  struck  for  the  good  old  cause  by  the  foremost 
of  living  Englishmen. 

"  The  line  of  succession  from  Hereward  to 
Gladstone  was  clear.  I  felt  myself  privileged  for 


64  MY   FATHER 

the  first  time  to  take  a  part,  however  humble,  in 
the  struggle  of  the  heroes  of  liberty. 

"  The  place  of  the  meeting  was  not  without  its 
own  historic  associations,  although,  they  were  not 
associations  of  victory,  but  of  defeat. 

"  Blackheath  Common,  a  wide  open  expanse 
near  Greenwich,  in  the  South-East  of  London, 
bears  small  token  now  of  the  rising  of  the 
Kentish  men  when  five  hundred  years  ago  they 
burst  into  mad  rebellion  against  a  corrupt 
aristocracy  and  a  perverted  law.  Small  trace  is 
there  left  of  that  terrible  day  when  the  oppressed 
Commons  rose,  and  with  red  right  hand,  sought 
to  redress  the  wrongs  of  their  order  by  massacre 
and  pillage.  Yet,  out  of  that  confused  turmoil 
in  the  past,  out  of  those  horrible  slaughterings 
and  rebellions,  out  of  all  those  mad  wild  struggles 
for  liberty  and  justice  against  the  all-powerful 
oppressor,  have  sprung  the  peace,  prosperity,  and 
freedom  of  to-day,  of  which  this  peaceful  Black- 
heath  is  but  one  of  the  myriad  illustrations  that 
fail  to  attract  attention,  merely  because  they  are 
so  common. 

"  The  hustings  from  which  Mr.  Gladstone 
addressed  his  constituents  were  erected  at  the 
eastern  extremity  of  the  Heath.  It  commanded 
an  extensive  view  of  undulating  landscape.  The 
sky,  which  had  been  bright  in  the  morning,  was 
overcast  and  threatening  in  the  afternoon.  When 
the  people  began  to  assemble,  it  was  pelting  hard. 
Down  it  poured  in  torrents,  from  the  great  grey 
clouds  that  covered  the  sky,  upon  the  great  black 
crowd  that  covered  the  Heath. 


REMINISCENCES  65 

"  The  rain  fortunately  did  not  deter  thousands 
from  coming  to  hear  Mr.  Gladstone  plead  for  the 
cause  of  human  liberty,  and  after  a  while  they 
were  rewarded  by  a  cessation  of  the  downpour. 

"  A  ringing  cheer,  and  a  simultaneous  rush  of 
the  fringe  of  the  crowd  towards  a  rapidly  advanc- 
ing carriage  told  everyone  that  Mr.  Gladstone,  in 
a  few  minutes,  would  appear  in  their  midst.  A 
tempest  of  cheering  again  and  again  renewed, 
hats  and  handkerchiefs  waving  in  the  air,  and  a 
confused  chorus  of  congratulatory  shouts  from 
various  demonstrative  members  of  the  vast  con- 
course, hailed  the  appearance  of  Mr.  Gladstone. 

"  Mr.  Gladstone  is  not  tall,  neither  is  he  stout, 
he  is  on  the  contrary  spare  and  somewhat  wiry. 
But  it  was  difficult  to  think  of  his  body  whilst 
looking  at  his  face.  Such  a  marvellously  expres- 
sive face  I  do  not  ever  remember  to  have  seen. 
Every  muscle  seemed  alive,  every  inch  of  surface 
seemed  to  speak,  it  was  in  perpetual  motion. 
Now  it  rippled  over  with  a  genial  smile  and  then 
the  smile  disappeared  and  the  horror  expressed 
by  his  words  was  reflected  on  his  countenance, 
and  then  again  the  intensity  of  his  highly  wrought 
feeling  gleamed  out  from  his  flashing  eye,  and 
the  listener  might  have  imagined  that  he  was 
hearing  the  outpourings  of  one  of  the  prophets 
who  brought  the  message  of  Jehovah  to  the 
House  of  Israel.  A  benevolent  face,  too,  it  was  ; 
one  upon  which  the  kindliness  enthroned  in  the 
heart  looks  out  upon  you  through  the  eyes  and 
leavens  every  feature  with  such  mildness  and 
sweetness  that  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  that  he 


66  MY   FATHER 

whose  face  rivals  the  tenderness  of  that  of  a 
woman,  has  proved  himself  the  best  man  in  the 
field,  not  on  one  occasion,  but  on  hundreds,  when- 
ever in  the  hall  of  St.  Stephen's  the  signal  has 
been  given  for  battle. 

"  The  meeting  opened  by  a  brief  speech  from 
the  chair,  and  then  a  resolution  calling  upon 
the  Government  to  use  their  utmost  endeavour 
to  re-establish  the  Concert  of  Europe  for  the 
redress  of  the  sufferings  of  the  oppressed  races 
of  the  East,  was  moved  and  seconded,  almost 
in  dumb  show,  and  then  amid  a  storm  of  cheers 
Mr.  Gladstone  rose  to  address  the  meeting. 

"The  rain  had  ceased  to  fall,  but  the  clouds 
still  obscured  the  sun.  There  was  but  a  faint 
breath  of  wind  and  that,  fortunately,  was  in 
favour  of  the  speaker.  Ten  thousand  men 
were  tightly  wedged  together  there,  waiting 
with  eager  faces  and  fixed  eyes  for  the  first 
words  which  were  to  fall  from  the  lips  of  the 
great  orator.  It  was  an  inspiring  sight,  and 
Mr.  Gladstone  felt  the  inspiration.  Seldom  did 
he  speak  with  more  effect.  Those  who  had  often 
heard  him  declared  that,  excepting  on  a  great 
night  in  the  House  of  Commons,  when  he 
could  employ  his  terrible  powers  of  sarcasm, 
they  had  never  heard  him  in  better  form,  and 
seldom,  if  ever,  had  he  displayed  in  the  course 
of  a  single  speech  so  many  of  the  distinguishing 
characteristics  of  his  oratory. 

"  The  simultaneous  cry  which  was  not  a  cry, 
but  a  groan  of  horror  and  indignation,  burst 
from  the  whole  of  the  vast  concourse  as 


REMINISCENCES  67 

Mr.  Gladstone  mentioned  deed  after  deed 
whereby  the  Pashas  had  shown  their  approval 
of  the  atrocities  which  their  troops  had  com- 
mitted in  Bulgaria.  And  when  at  length  he 
declared  that  the  Government  of  Turkey  was 
as  deeply  dyed  in  hand  and  arm  with  blood 
as  the  vilest  of  the  mercenaries,  the  tremendous 
energy  of  the  speaker  was  reflected  in  his 
audience,  and  a  roar  went  up  from  the  whole 
of  the  great  throng,  a  roar  which  might  justly 
be  regarded  as  the  inarticulate  condemnation 
which  Democracy  was  pronouncing  upon  the 
Ottomans,  the  emphatic  attestation  by  the 
English  people  of  the  guilt  of  the  Turks. 
Mr.  Gladstone  only  occasionally  rose  to  that 
height  of  fervid  expression.  He  did  so  when 
he  declared  that  all  the  massacres  and  outrages 
which  form  the  worst  pages  in  English  history, 
concentrated  into  one  block,  would  not  be 
worthy  to  appear  upon  one  of  the  pages  which 
will  hereafter  consign  to  eternal  infamy  the 
proceedings  of  the  Turks  in  Bulgaria.  The 
man's  soul  seemed  to  go  out  of  him  in  the 
extraordinary  earnestness  with  which  he  hurled 
his  anathemas  at  the  heads  of  the  devastators 
of  Bulgaria.  A  remarkable  instance  of  this 
was  afforded  his  hearers  in  the  indescribable, 
concentrated  scorn  and  indignation  with  which, 
replying  to  the  excuse  that  it  was  only  a  few 
irregulars  who  had  committed  these  atrocities, 
he  pronounced  the  words :  '  Irregulars  or 
regulars,  they  are  all  alike.'  It  is  but  a  simple 
sentence,  but  falling  as  it  did,  red  hot  from 

F  2 


68  MY  FATHER 

Mr.  Gladstone's  lips,  upon  an  immense  multi- 
tude, all  thoroughly  roused  to  the  overwhelming 
importance  of  the  occasion,  it  had  a  marvellous 
effect.  The  wonderful  compass  of  his  voice, 
the  withering  emphasis  with  which  he  pro- 
nounced each  syllable,  will  never  leave  the 
memory  of  those  who  heard  it.  But  the  most 
sustained,  and  perhaps  the  finest  portion  of  his 
speech,  was  that  in  which  he  explained  the 
terms  which  he  would  allow  the  Turks.  As 
if  he  were  addressing  the  Ottomans,  he  paused, 
and  then  drawing  himself  up  to  his  full  height 
he  began  with  measured  solemn  cadence, 
sentence  slowly  following  sentence  :  '  You  shall 
receive  your  regular  tribute,  retain  your  titular 
sovereignty,  your  Empire  shall  not  be  invaded, 
but,'  then  Mr.  Gladstone's  eye  kindled,  and 
lifting  his  clenched  hand  on  high,  he  proceeded 
in  tones  which  rang  clear  as  a  clarion  on  every 
ear,  '  but  never  again,  while  the  years  roll  their 
course,  so  far  as  it  is  in  our  power  to  determine, 
never  again  shall  hand  of  violence  be  raised 
by  you,  never  again  shall  the  floodgates  of  lust 
be  opened  by  you  for  the  sake  of  making 
mankind  miserable.'  Here  the  pent-up  feelings 
of  the  multitude  found  vent  in  a  tremendous 
roar  of  applause  in  which  the  end  of  the 
sentence  was  entirely  lost.  There  was  rhythm 
almost  of  a  chant  in  the  way  in  which 
Mr.  Gladstone  pronounced  these  solemn  words 
that  carried  awe  into  every  heart.  It  was  as 
if  the  High  Priest  of  humanity  were  pro- 
nouncing the  doom  which  was  impending  over 


REMINISCENCES  69 

the  guilty  Empire.  In  different  style,  but  as 
emphatic,  was  his  abrupt  and  decisive  declaration 
that  if  these  outrages  reported  as  taking  place 
in  Servia  were  facts,  they  ought  to  be  stopped. 
James  Russell  Lowell,  speaking  of  Theodore 
Parker,  described  the  secret  of  his  oratory 
in  words  which  may  well  be  applied  to 
Mr.  Gladstone  : 

"  Every  word  that  he  speaks  has  been  fierily  furnaced 
In  the  blast  of  a  life  that  has  struggled  in  earnest : 

But  his  periods  fall  on  you,  stroke  after  stroke, 
Like  the  blows  of  a  lumberer  felling  an  oak," 

"Mr.  Gladstone  seems  to  deliver  himself  of 
the  conclusion  of  some  of  his  periods  as  the 
hunter  hurls  the  spear  at  his  victim  with  muscles 
quivering,  and  the  whole  energy  of  the  man  con- 
centrated in  that  single  act.  Nor  should  another 
notable  characteristic  of  his  energy  be  omitted, 
—the  solemnity  with  which  the  foremost  states- 
man of  our  land  appealed  to  the  consciousness 
of  his  hearers — that  if  England  suffered  her 
wretched  jealousies  to  thwart  the  freeing  of  those 
peoples,  she  had  nothing  to  anticipate  but  a  just 
judgment  at  the  hands  of  the  Almighty.  The 
address  was  throughout  permeated  by  a  religious 
spirit,  in  its  lofty  appeal  to  man's  better  nature, 
in  its  earnest  pleading  for  the  cause  of  the 
oppressed,  in  its  constant  recognition  of  the 
superintendence  and  government  of  the  Almighty. 
It  was  a  much  more  religious  address  than  many 
a  score  of  sermons  that  were  preached  on  the 
following  Sunday. 


70  MY  FATHER 

"  In  eloquence,  in  lofty  spirituality,  in  keen 
practical  sagacity,  and  in  earnest  sympathy, 
Mr.  Gladstone's  Speech  at  Blackheath  reveals 
the  marvellous  combination  of  qualities  which 
have  made  Mr.  Gladstone  the  idol  of  the 
popular  heart,  the  heaven-sent  leader  of  English- 
men whenever  they  have  any  serious  work  to  do 
that  must  be  done. 

"  Mr.  Gladstone  sat  down  amidst  a  tempest 
of  applause.  And  then  arose  a  strange  cry,  or 
strange  blending  of  cries,  from  thousands  of 
voices.  It  was  difficult  to  make  anything  out 
distinctly.  Some  were  calling  for  Granville, 
others  for  Carrington,  but  over  and  above  all 
these  voices  was  one  vast  plaintive  semi-articulate 
cry,  a  cry  that  was  also  a  prayer.  The  out- 
burst of  ten  thousand  hearts,  and  that  cry,  that 
prayer,  that  pleading  outburst  from  the  popular 
heart,  as  well  as  could  be  made  out,  was  '  Lead 
us  !  Lead  us  ! '  It  was  the  call  which  the  nation 
addressed  to  Mr.  Gladstone. 

"  We  do  not  believe  that  he  was  deaf  to  the 
semi-articulate  entreaty  that  rose  from  this 
imposing  audience,  but  at  the  time  he  made  no 
sign.  Mr.  Gladstone  did  not  remain  unrespon- 
sive to  that  cry. 

"  From  that  day  forth  he  made  it  the  main 
business  of  his  life  to  counter-work  and  defeat 
the  pro-Turkish,  anti-Russian  policy  of  his  great 
antagonist  who  was  then  in  power.  To  a  large 
extent  he  succeeded.  For  England  was  delivered 
from  the  infamy  of  unsheathing  her  sword  in 
support  of  the  savage  tyranny  of  the  Turks, 


REMINISCENCES  71 

and,  thanks  solely  to  the  magnificent  self- 
sacrifice  and  enthusiasm  of  the  Russian  people, 
Bulgaria  was  freed. 

"  But  to  a  large  extent  he  failed.  He  was 
unable  to  compel  Lord  Beaconsfield  to  take  the 
only  step  by  which  war  could  have  been  averted. 
The  English  Fleet  did  not  co-operate  with  the 
Russian  Army  in  demanding  redress  for  the 
wronged  Bulgarians.  One  hundred  thousand 
human  lives  were  sacrificed  as  the  result  of  that 
failure.  And  if  to-day  Macedonia  is  a  bye- 
word  and  a  reproach  to  Christendom,  the  despair 
of  Europe  and  a  disgrace  to  the  human  race,  it 
is  solely  due  to  the  fact  that  the  movement 
launched  that  day  at  Blackheath  was  not  strong 
enough  to  prevent  Lord  Beaconsfield  from  using 
his  power  to  thrust  Macedonia,  emancipated  by 
the  Russian  sword,  back  under  the  hoofs  of  the 
Turkish  hordes.  But  both  his  success  and  his 
failure  were  hidden  from  our  eyes  that  day.  We 
only  saw  the  heroic  champion  of  nationality  and 
liberty  standing  forth  with  strength  unimpaired 
by  years,  to  do  battle  for  the  cause  of  the  down- 
trodden and  the  weak." 

Thirty  years  afterwards,  looking  back  upon  that 
memorable  day,  my  Father  wrote  :  "  I  can  say  I 
have  seen  no  finer,  more  inspiring  spectacle  in  my 
time." 

And  he  gave  it  the  first  place  in  his  series  of 
articles,  Tlie  most  Memorable  Scenes  in  my  Life. 


CHAPTER  V 

CARLYLE   AND   GLADSTONE 

"  Of  all  men  who  have  trodden  the  English  ground  since 
first  I  saw  the  light,  this  man  was  to  me  the  noblest." — W.  T. 
STEAD  on  Carlyle. 

IT  was  during  the  stormy  autumn  months  of 
1877  that  he  was  first  introduced  to  Madame 
NovikofFs  Salon.  She  held  her  little  Court  at 
Symonds's  Hotel,  Brook  Street.  And  here,  in  the 
great  world  of  London,  he  met  and  crossed  swords 
with  the  literary  giants  who  had  long  been  his 
inspiration. 

"  It  was  there,"  he  narrates,  "  that  I  first  met 
Mr.  Gladstone,  Mr.  Kinglake,  Mr.  Froude, 
Mr.  Stansfield,  Mr.  Courtney,  Count  Beust, 
Mr.  Matthew  Arnold,  and  a  host  of  other 
notables.  I  shall  never  forget  the  feeling  of  awe 
that  came  over  me  when  in  the  most  matter-of- 
fact  way  Madame  NovikofF  proposed  to  take  me 
to  call  upon  Mr.  Carlyle.  Had  she  proposed  to 
take  me  to  dine  with  the  Apostle  Paul  I  could 
hardly  have  been  more  startled.  Carlyle,  from 

72 


CARLYLE   AND   GLADSTONE        73 

my  earliest  boyhood,  had  been  one  of  the  greatest 
gods  of  a  shadowy  Olympus.  To  call  upon  him 
as  though  he  were  an  actual  mortal  seemed  like 
a  chapter  out  of  fairy-land.  But  it  was  delight- 
fully real,  when,  half-an-hour  afterwards,  we  were 
seated  in  the  familiar  parlour  in  Cheyne  Row, 
listening  to  the  Chelsea  Sage's  fierce  denunciation 
of  Lord  Beaconsfield  and  enthusiastic  eulogy  of 
the  Russians,  "  the  only  European  Nation  which 
has  not  forgotten  how  to  obey." 

"  I  was  much  impressed  with  the  stateliness  of 
Mr.  Carlyle's  manner,  the  heartiness  of  his  laugh, 
and  the  marked  regard  which  he  showed  to  the 
'Russian  leddy'  as  he  called  her.  When  he 
was  with  her  there  was  not  a  trace  of  the  grim 
sardonic  spirit  which  has  left  such  a  dark  shadow 
over  his  memory.  His  bright  blue  eyes,  the  russet 
red  of  his  cheeks,  contrasted  strangely  with  my  pre- 
vious conception  of  the  man  '  with  features  scarred 
with  wrinkles  and  gloomy  with  undying  grief.' 

"  Although,"  he  proceeds,  "  I  could  not  accept 
much  of  his  stern,  sad  gospel,  yet  all  that  was 
manly  and  heroic  within  me  vibrated  with 
sympathy  when  under  the  spell  of  his  prophetic 
message.  Here,  at  least,  there  was  a  man  in 
earnest,  who  saw  into  the  soul  of  things,  and  who 
by  virtue  of  his  insight  was  of  all  men  the  most 
earnest  to  speak  his  message  to  his  fellows.  The 
prophet  of  duty  in  an  age  when  interest  is 
enshrined  in  the  Holy  of  Holies ;  the  preacher 
of  righteousness,  when  all  men  are  making  haste 
to  be  rich  ....  of  all  men  who  have  trodden 
the  English  ground  since  first  I  saw  the  light, 


74  MY   FATHER 

this  man  was  to  me  the  noblest.  Nor  was  that 
all.  In  the  storm  and  strife,  and  still  more  in 
the  routine  and  absorbing  duties  of  editorial  life, 
it  was  Carlyle  more  than  any  other  man  who 
kept  my  soul  alive,  who  braced  me  anew  to  my 
work,  and  whose  profound  sayings  stirred  my 
heart  like  the  blast  of  a  trumpet,  in  those  crises  of 
our  life  when  alone  you  realise  the  full  significance 
of  Time,  not  so  much  as  a  preparation  for,  but  as 
a  part  of,  Eternity. 

"  Especially  was  this  the  case  in  the  midst  of 
the  Atrocity  Agitations  of  1876-8.  Thomas 
Carlyle,  Wordsworth,  James  Russell  Lowell,  and 
the  Old  Testament, — these  supplied  and  sustained 
the  force  which,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  its 
direction,  undoubtedly  gave  me  motive  power  of 
the  highest — moral  and  spiritual,  that  I  ever 
attained." 

Here  is  the  impressionist  picture  my  Father 
recorded  at  that  time,  of  the  room  in  which 
Mr.  Carlyle  received  his  friends. 

"  It  was  a  bright  and  cheerful  apartment  on 
the  first  floor  fronting  the  street,  over  the  door 
by  which  we  had  just  entered.  It  was  lighted 
by  two  windows  and  warmed  by  a  fire  on  the 
north  side  of  the  room,  the  door  being  placed 
at  the  south-east  corner.  The  fireplace  was 
lined  with  blue  and  white  Dutch  tiles.  On 
the  mantelpiece  under  a  glass  shade  stood  a 
small  clock  in  white  marble  and  gilt.  In  front 
of  the  fire  was  a  comfortable  leather-covered 
Voltairean  arm-chair,  with  a  reading-desk  fixed 


CARLYLE   AND   GLADSTONE        75 

to  the  right  arm.  On  this  desk  lay  open  an  old 
French  Work  bound  in  rusty  leather,  the  Life, 
so  far  as  I  could  make  out,  of  St.  Panomb.  I 
am  not  certain  about  the  name,  but  Mr.  Carlyle 
afterwards  told  us  it  was  the  Life  of  one  of  the 
monks  of  the  Thebaid.  On  the  left-hand  side  of 
the  arm-chair  on  the  right  of  the  fire  stood  a  com- 
fortable easy  sofa.  On  each  side  of  the  fireplace 
the  recesses,  extending  to  the  wall  on  the  right 
and  the  left,  were  filled  with  books,  all  well  bound. 
I  noted  one,  apparently  a  work  on  a  theological 
question  by  a  Scottish  divine,  at  least  I  think 
so,  but  even  that  I  have  now  forgotten.  In  the 
centre  of  the  room  there  was  a  table.  Some 
books  were  lying  on  it,  and  some  porcelain  or 
china  cups  and  saucers.  At  the  opposite  end  of 
the  room  to  the  fireplace,  near  the  window,  stood 
a  small  statue  in  terra-cotta  of  Mr.  Carlyle. 
There  were,  I  noticed,  several  pictures  on  the  walls, 
mostly,  if  not  exclusively,  portraits.  I  saw  one  oil 
painting  of  Cromwell  and  one  curious  print  por- 
trait of  the  same,  both  on  the  wall  opposite  to  the 
window.  I  did  not  recognise  the  other  portraits. 

"  We  were  sitting  on  the  sofa  and  had  hardly 
had  time  to  glance  round  the  room  when  a  step 
was  heard  on  the  threshold.  We  rose  and 
saluted — Thomas  Carlyle  ! 

"  There  are  moments  in  life  when  you  ought 
to  feel  so  keenly  that  you  do  riot  feel  at  all. 
Judging  from  all  previous  impressions  I  should 
have  been  thrilled  with  uncontrollable  emotions 
of  delight  mingled  with  awe,  but,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  I  simply  felt  a  little  dazed,  as  for  the  first 


76  MY  FATHER 

time  in  my  life  I  looked  into  those  eyes  through 
whose  eagle  vision  so  many  far  off  events  had 
become  visible  to  me.  The  eyes  were  bright, 
brilliantly  bright,  and  blue  as  the  azure  lochs 
which  gemmed  the  hills  between  St.  Mary's  Loch 
and  Hawick.  I  never  saw  so  rich  a  blue, 
excepting  in  those  lochs,  as  that  which  gleamed 
in  the  eyes  of  Thomas  Carlyle.  Beneath  those 
blue  eyes  were  ruddy  cheeks,  almost  hectic  in 
their  bright  colouring,  and  on  the  left  cheek  a 
vein  showed  out  clearly  red  in  the  midst  of  the 
red.  His  lips  were  rather  fallen  in,  owing  to  the 
lack  of  teeth.  His  brow,  although  high  and 
wrinkled,  bore  upon  it  none  of  that  weight  of 
consuming  care  that  impressed  you  in  his 
portraits.  The  ploughshares  of  sorrow  have 
passed  over  it,  but  the  furrows  do  not  show,  and 
the  expression  is  more  that  of  benignant  placid 
innocence  than  that  which  sits  on  the  grief- 
scarred  features  of  his  photographs.  His  head  is 
covered  with  lovely  white  grey  hair,  as  thick  as  if 
the  silvered  locks  belonged  to  the  young  Carlyle 
of  forty  years  before.  When  I  saw  him  I 
appreciated  for  the  first  time  the  exclamation  of 
my  enthusiastic  companion  who,  in  describing  her 
'dear  old  Carlyle,'  emphasised  her  admiration  for 
his  '  darling  little  face ' ;  the  expression,  although 
at  the  time  it  struck  me  as  incongruous,  was 
just.  It  is  a  little  face.  And  his  bright  blue 
eyes  and  ruddy  cheeks,  with  the  thick  grey  hair, 
might  well  justify  the  endearing  epithet. 

"  I  was  surprised  and  agreeably  disappointed 
that  the  infinite  sadness  which  I  had  believed 


CARLYLE   AND   GLADSTONE       77 

ever  brooded  over  the  face  of  the  author  of 
'  Sartor  Resartus '  was  not  there.  In  its  stead 
there  was  nothing  but  kindly  mirth  and 
ready  sympathy.  It  was  somewhat  perplexing. 
Mr.  Carlyle  stood  erect,  as  if  the  weight  of 
four-score  years  did  not  rest  upon  his  shoulders, 
and  although  his  long  frail  hands  trembled 
slightly  there  was  no  other  indication  of  failing 
strength.  .  . 

"  Mr.  Carlyle  afterwards  talked  to  me  a  good 
deal  about  Madame  Novikoff,  6  a  very  patriotic 
leddy,'  as  he  observed.  They  used  to  drive  to- 
gether on  week-days  in  Lady  Ashburton's 
carriage,  and  on  Sundays  in  the  Chelsea  omnibus, 
where  they  must  have  seemed  a  curious  pair  to 
the  inquisitive  and  hero-worshipping  conductor. 
Froude  was  generally  with  them  during  those 
drives.  At  Mr.  Carlyle's  also  I  met  Mr.  Lecky, 
and  subsequently  Madame  Novikoff  took  me  to 
see  Mr.  Froude.  It  was  a  great  new  world  for 
me  to  see  the  men  whom  I  had  been  reading 
and  writing  about  all  my  life  for  the  first  time 
face  to  face." 

Still  more  important  was  it  to  meet  Mr. 
Gladstone,  and  to  come  for  the  first  time  behind 
the  scenes  of  English  and  foreign  political  life. 

Their  first  meeting  took  place  at  Symonds's  Hotel. 
Father's  notes  record  the  conversation  very  fully. 
It  begins  with  a  sort  of  anthem  of  praise  of  the 
Northern  Echo. 

"  He  came,"  says  Father,  "  direct  to  the  hotel 
from  the  station.  I  was  sitting  in  the  room  at 


78  MY   FATHER 

about  four-thirty  when  *  Mr.  Gladstone '  was 
announced,  and  in  walked  the  Rt.  Hon.  W.  E.  G. 
He  greeted  Madame  Novikoff  most  warmly,  and 
I  was  then  introduced  to  him.  His  face  crinkled 
all  over  with  his  expressive  smile  as  he  heard  my 
name.  Turning  towards  me  he  said  he  really 
regarded  himself  as  intimately  acquainted  with 
the  Northern  Echo,  although  he  had  never  met 
me  before.  '  I  can  assure  you,'  he  said,  '  that 
it  is  a  sincere  matter  of  regret  to  me  that  I  cannot 
read  more  of  the  Echo,  for  to  read  the  Echo  is  to 
dispense  with  the  necessity  of  reading  other 
papers.  It  is  admirably  got  up  in  every  way, 
admirably  got  up.'  Then  taking  his  seat  in  an 
easy-chair  he  turned  to  Madame  Novikoff,  •  and 
how  are  you  after  all  the  trials  of  the  year  ?  It 
has  been  a  terrible  year,  a  very  terrible  year.' 

" '  Yes,'  she  said,  '  especially  at  the  beginning, 
when  the  protocols  seemed  as  if  we  were  going  to 
leave  the  Bulgarians  to  their  fate.' 

"  '  Oh  dear,  dear,  yes,'  he  said,  '  it  has  indeed 
been  a  most  trying  year  in  every  respect.  Mrs. 
Gladstone  has  come  up  to  town.'  At  this 
moment  Miss  Wenda  Cartwright  entered,  and 
I  rose  to  go.  Madame  Novikoff  however  asked 
me  to  stay,  and  gave  me  a  cup  of  tea.  Mr. 
Gladstone,  also  supplied  with  tea,  was  sitting  on 
the  right  o£  Madame  Novikoff.  In  front  of  her 
was  Miss  Cartwright,  and  I  was  on  the  extreme  left. 

"  After  a  few  words  concerning  his  pleasure  at 
Madame  Novikoff's  writings,  Mr.  Gladstone 
added  something  more  in  praise  of  the  North 
of  England. 


CARLYLE  AND   GLADSTONE        79 

"'Yes,  Mr.  Gladstone,'  I  said,  'you  have 
always  done  justice  to  the  North.'  He  added, 
'  I  sincerely  hope  that  your  paper  is  progressing.' 
I  told  him  yes,  that  last  year  it  was  from  10,000 
to  12,000,  and  this  year  from  14,000  to  15,000 
.  .  .  He  seemed  surprised  and  pleased.  1  ex- 
plained that  I  told  him  the  circulation  without 
reserve,  although  it  was  usually  a  secret. 

" '  Yes,'  he  said,  '  that  was  the  one  advantage 
the  old  Stamp  Acts  had,  they  at  least  enabled 
everyone  to  know  to  a  copy  what  was  the  circu- 
lation of  the  different  papers.  I  had  the  very 
greatest  difficulty,'  he  added,  '  in  refraining  from 
pen  and  paper  after  reading  Dean  Stanley's 
letter.' 

"  '  You  recognised  the  Dean  ? '  said  Madame 
N. 

"  '  Certainly,'  said  he,  '  there  was  not  another 
man  in  all  England  could  have  written  that 
letter.' 

" '  I  was  in  hopes  you  might  reply  to  it,'  I 
said. 

" '  Ah,'  he  said,  '  you  dealt  with  him  so 
excellently  in  your  leading  articles,  there  was 
nothing  left  for  me  to  do.' 

"  *  I  am  so  glad  you  like  the  Northern  Echo,' 
said  Madame  N. 

"'Yes,'  he  said,  "it  is  indeed  an  admirable 
paper.' 

"  '  And  so  brilliantly  written,'  added  Madame 
N. 

"  '  Yes,  I  think  so,'  said  Mr.  Gladstone,  '  but,' 
he  added  with  a  merry  little  laugh,  '  perhaps  you 


80  MY   FATHER 

and  I  are  bad  judges  because  we  agree  with  it  so 
completely.  If  we  were  opposed  to  it  our  opinion 
might  be  better  worth  having.' 

"The  conversation  then  turned  upon  the 
attitude  of  the  London  Press  towards  the  war. 
The  war-spirit,  asserted  Mr.  Gladstone,  existed 
chiefly  in  the  Metropolitan  districts.  He  added 
that  out  of  the  three  thousand  letters  of  his 
'  abusive  correspondents '  nine-tenths  or  even 
more,  came  from  the  Metropolitan  districts.  An 
immense  proportion  of  these  letters  contained 
quotations  from  the  Daily  Telegraph  leaders  and 
correspondents,  with  paragraphs  relating  to  the 
Russians  underlined  and  garnished  with  ex- 
pletives. 

" '  It  is  a  curious  fact,'  he  added,  '  that  I 
receive  about  forty  to  fifty  of  these  horrible 
letters  every  day. 

"  Mr.  Gladstone  then  waxed  very  wroth 
concerning  an  article  by  Louis  Kossuth  which 
had  appeared  in  a  recent  number  of  the  Con- 
temporary Review,  dealing  with  the  extradition 
of  the  Hungarian  refugees.  Mr.  Gladstone  de- 
scribed it  as  'a  most  loathsome  article,  a  foul 
and  abominable  piece  of  the  most  unmitigated 
selfishness  that  ever  I  have  heard.' 

"Mr.  Gladstone  also  spoke  very  strongly  in 
favour  of  publicity  as  a  corrective  to  political 
corruption. 

"  «  Corruption  there  must  be,'  he  said  *  wher- 
ever there  is  not  the  utmost  publicity.  Publicity, 
that  is  the  great  advantage,  the  great  security 
of  English  political  life.'" 


CHAPTER  VI 

HIS    FIRST    PREMONITION 

"  The  Salvation  Army  is  a  miracle  of  our  time.  It  is  the 
latest  revelation  of  the  potency  of  the  invisible  over  the  visible, 
the  concrete  manifestation  of  the  power  of  the  spirit  over  matter." 
— W.  T.  STEAD.  Review  of  Reviews,  1890. 

THESE  "glimpses  of  Olympus"  in  his  flying 
visits  to  London  were  brief  and  brilliant  rifts  in 
the  comparative  monotony  of  Darlington  life, 
which  after  1878,  when  calm  succeeded  storm 
in  the  political  horizon,  returned  more  or  less  to 
its  former  routine. 

The  year  1879  brought  him  for  the  first  time 
into  touch  with  the  Salvation  Army,  which  made 
its  first  appearance  at  Darlington  during  the  mid- 
summer of  that  year.  The  following  is  taken  from 
his  own  account  of  the  bloodless  campaign  by 
which  that  Quaker  stronghold  became  the  scene 
of  one  of  General  Booth's  earliest  victories. 

After  describing  the  arrival  of  the  u  Hallelujah 
Lasses"  in  the  town,  and  the  enthusiasm  they 
evoked — how  the  Livingstone  Hall,  holding  from 

G 


82  MY   FATHER 

2,000  to  2,500  people,  was  crowded  every  night  for 
several  weeks,  he  goes  on  to  say  :-— 

"At  first  respectable  Darlington  held  aloof. 
Then  the  emissaries  of  respectability  ventured 
down,  in  sheer  curiosity,  to  see  what  was  going 
on.  They  returned  puzzled.  Nothing  was 
going  on.  No  dancing,  no  extravagance,  no 
tomfoolery,  no  sensationalism.  The  two  girls, 
Captain  Rose  and  Lieutenant  Annie — one  two- 
and-twenty,  the  other  eighteen — conducted  a 
religious  service,  not  unlike  an  early  Methodist 
meeting,  with  hearty  responses,  lively  singing,  and 
simple  gospel  addresses,  brief  and  to  the  point. 
The  penitents'  form  and  the  after  prayer-meet- 
ing, in  which  the  lasses,  going  from  seat  to 
seat,  personally  addressed  everyone  who  re- 
mained as  to  their  spiritual  welfare,  were  the 
only  features  in  which  it  differed  from  an 
ordinary  mission  revival  service.  But  the  odd 
miraculous  thing  that  bothered  Darlington  was 
the  effect  which  it  had.  All  the  riff-raff  of  the 
town  went  to  the  Livingstone  Hall,  and  many  of 
them  never  returned  the  same  men. 

"  At  last  I  went  to  see  the  girls  who  had 
turned  Darlington  upside  down.  I  was  amazed. 
I  found  two  delicate  girls — one  hardly  able  to 
write  a  letter;  the  other  not  yet  nineteen— 
ministering  to  a  crowded  congregation  which 
they  had  themselves  collected  out  of  the  street, 
and  building  up  an  aggressive  church-militant 
out  of  the  human  refuse  which  other  churches 
regarded  with  blank  despair.  They  had  to 


HIS   FIRST   PREMONITION  83 

provide  for  maintaining  services  regularly  every 
week-night  and  nearly  all  Sunday,  in  the  largest 
hall  in  the  town ;  they  had  to  raise  funds  to 
pay  the  rent,  meet  the  gas  bill,  clean  the  hall, 
repair  broken  windows  and  broken  forms,  and  pro- 
vide themselves  with  food  and  lodging.  And  they 
did  it.  The  town  was  suffering  severely  from 
a  depression  in  the  iron  trade,  and  the  regular 
churches  could  with  difficulty  meet  their 
liabilities.  But  these  girls  raised  a  new  cause 
out  of  the  ground,  in  the  poorest  part  of  the 
town,  and  made  it  self-supporting  by  the 
coppers  of  their  collection.  Judged  by  the 
most  material  standard,  this  was  a  great  result. 
In  the  first  six  months  a  thousand  persons  had 
been  down  to  the  penitent  form  and  a  corps  or 
a  church  was  formed  of  nearly  two  hundred 
members,  each  of  whom  was  privileged  to  speak, 
to  pray,  to  sing,  to  visit,  to  march  in  procession, 
to  take  a  collection,  or  to  do  anything  that  wanted 
doing. 

" '  It  will  not  last,'  said  many,  and  dismissed 
the  miracle  as  though  it  were  less  miraculous 
because  it  was  not  capable  of  endless  repetition. 
I  sat  next  a  young  mechanic  one  night  in  the 
meeting,  and  asked  him  what  he  thought  about 
the  business.  ( Dunno,'  he  said,  '  they're  a  queer 
lot.'  'Done  any  good?'  'Mebbe.  There's 
Knacker  Jack — I  know  him.'  '  Well,  has  it 
not  been  good  for  his  wife  and  bairns?'  'Dunno.' 
But  I  work  at  the  same  place  as  he  does,  and  it 
has  been  good  for  his  bosses.  He  used  to  strike 
'em  and  knock  'em  about  dreadful.  But  since 

G  2 


84  MY   FATHER 

the  lasses  got  hold  of  him  he's  never  laid  his 
hand  on  'em.'  Even  suppose  that  it  did  not 
last,  and  that  the  converts  only  stood  so  long 
and  then  fell  away ;  then,  for  as  long  as  they 
stand,  a  great  and  beneficent  change  has  been 
effected,  in  which  all  surroundings  share — from 
the  police  to  the  horses. 

"  It  was  my  first  personal  experience  of  the 
Salvation  Army  and  its  methods.  Born  and 
bred  among  the  quieter  Congregationalists,  I  had 
some  prejudice  against  noisy  services,  but  here 
was  a  stubborn  fact  which  I  could  not  get  over. 
There  was  the  palpable,  unmistakable  result, 
material  and  moral,  which  before  July,  1879, 
would  have  been  declared  utterly  impossible — a 
miracle  not  to  be  wrought  by  man,  no,  not  if  all 
the  churches  and  chapels  in  Darlington  had 
combined  to  hold  services  in  the  Livingstone 
Hall.  And  the  only  visible  means  by  which 
this  result  was  brought  about,  was  these  two 
girls,  neither  of  them  well  educated,  both  delicate, 
and  without  any  friends  or  material  resources 
whatever. 

"  The  first  letter  I  ever  wrote  to  head-quarters 
was  a  brief  note  to  the  General  complaining  of 
the  cruelty  of  sending  two  young  women — one 
of  whom  seemed  threatened  with  consumption— 
to  undertake  such  exhausting  work.  I  added, 
what  I  fully  believed,  that  if  they  broke  down 
and  died  he  deserved  to  be  indicted  for 
manslaughter.  The  General's  reply  was  char- 
acteristic :  '  You  would  never  do  for  a 
general,'  he  said,  'a  general  must  not  be 


HIS   FIRST   PREMONITION  85 

afraid  to  spend   his    soldiers    in   order  to  carry 
positions.' ' 

General  Booth  also  wrote  to  my  Father  as 
follows  soon  after  the  first  appearance  of  the  War 
Cry: 

"HEADQUARTERS  OF  THE  SALVATION  ARMY, 
272,  WHITECHAPEL  ROAD, 
LONDON,  E. 

Jan.  9th,  1880. 

W.  T.  STEAD,  ESQ. 
MY  DEAR  SIR, 

Accept  my  thanks  for  the  paper  you  were  good 
enough  to  send  me  for  the  War  Cry.  I  enclose 
a  copy  of  No.  3.  I  am  much  gratified  to  know 
that  you  like  the  paper. 

We  must  as  you  say  push  it,  but  we  have  much 
to  learn,  I  find. 

Miss  Clapham  is  taking  some  rest  before  going 
to  her  new  station.  Let  me  commend  to  you  the 
sisters  who  are  succeeding  her  in  Darlington  and 
bespeak  your  kind  interest. 

Yours  very  truly, 

WILLIAM  BOOTH. 

My  Father  had  the  greatest  admiration  for  the 
consummate  organising  genius  of  General  Booth 
and  his  family,  he  said  that  they  constituted 
the  most  remarkable  group  of  men  and  women 
that  he  knew,  and  he  often  declared  that  he 
had  been  very  strongly  tempted  to  abandon 
journalism  and  join  the  Salvation  Army,  but  this 
he  avowed  was  a  "temptation  of  the  Evil  One, 
who  always  appealed  to  him  on  the  lines  of  his 


86  MY   FATHER 

inclinations."  So  he  did  not  give  ear  to  the 
tempter.  His  acquaintance  with  the  Booth  family 
was  destined  indirectly  to  have  tremendous  results, 
though  he  was  never  more  than  an  outside  sup- 
porter of  the  Army.  B  ram  well  Booth  was,  six 
years  later,  to  stand  by  his  side  in  the  Dock  of 
the  Central  Criminal  Court  of  the  Old  Bailey. 
He  was  also  largely  responsible  for  the  publication 
of  "  Darkest  England  and  the  Way  Out."  This 
was  all  still  hidden  in  the  future  when  the  Army 
first  took  possession  of  the  little  Quaker  Market- 
town.  But  the  tide  of  Destiny  was  slowly 
moving  to  the  flood,  and  he  was  drawing  near 
to  the  end  of  the  "  Darlington  chapter "  of  his 
life.  One  more  glimpse  of  Grainey  Hill,  and 
then  to  London. 

"  Grainey  Hill  was  an  ideal  place  for  children," 
he  writes,  "  I  had  three  acres  and  a  cow,  and 
besides  the  cow  a  perfect  menagerie  of  goats, 
rabbits,  poultry,  dogs  and  cats,  not  to  speak  of 
the  pony,  which  was  almost  regarded  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  family.  To  be  brought  up  under  the 
green  trees  in  the  midst  of  flowers  and  shrubs, 
free  from  the  smoke  and  murmur  of  the  town,  in 
a  life  of  perfect  freedom  from  conventional 
restraint,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  humanising 
influences  of  the  constant  responsible  care  of  birds 
and  beasts ;  to  begin  and  close  the  day  with 
praise  and  prayer,  and  to  be  constantly  trusted  to 
help  mother  in  the  house  and  father  in  the 
garden  and  field — what  environment  could  be 
more  idyllic  ?  It  was  as  the  Garden  of  Eden 


HIS   FIRST   PREMONITION 

plus  the  children,  of  whom  there  were  none  in 
Paradise.  Without  our  children  it  would  not 
have  been  Paradise.  .  . 

"  The  modern  method  of  bringing  up  children, 
when  the  parents  relegate  all  their  duties  to 
nurses  and  governesses  and  pack  them  off  to 
boarding-schools,  may  be  a  necessity  in  some 
cases.  But  no  more  abominable  trampling  under 
foot  of  that  divinely  appointed  means  of  grace, 
which  children  are  to  parents,  can  be  conceived. 
You  get  no  good  of  your  children  on  such  a 
system,  and  your  offspring  are  almost  orphaned 
from  their  birth.  Not  so,  thank  God,  was  parent- 
age understood  in  our  North- country  home. 
The  children  were  always  with  us.  We  shared 
their  life  to  the  full ;  they  shared  ours  so  far  as 
they  could  understand.  And  in  such  circum- 
stances children  develop  fast.  Especially  is  this  the 
case  when,  as  at  Grainey  Hill,  the  mother  lived 
almost  alone  among  her  children,  and  depended 
upon  them  for  all  the  solace  of  companionship 
and  of  sympathy  which  in  a  less  secluded  life 
might  have  been  supplied  from  more  varied 
sources.  .  .  Our  children  were  our  only  recreation, 
nor  could  mortal  man  desire  anything  more  de- 
lightful than  in  study  and  in  play  to  watch  the 
unfolding  of  the  innocent  mind  of  the  child." 

They  lived  at  Grainey  Hill  for  eight  years,  and  ' 
then  came  the  summons  to  London. 

And  now  comes  a  curious  and  interesting 
manifestation  of  that  foreseeing  inner  vision,  or 
"  second  sight "  which  he  possessed  as  surely  as 


88  MY   FATHER 

any  Hebrew  prophet  of  old-time,  but  of  which 
this  is  the  first  very  definite  expression  that  came 
consciously  to  him.1 

"  I  can  make  no  claim,"  he  says,  "  to  the 
proud  prerogative  of  the  seer,  but  upon  several 
occasions  I  have  had  some  extraordinary  pre- 
monitions of  what  was  about  to  happen.  I 
can  give  no  explanation  as  to  how  they  came, 
all  I  know  is  that  they  arrived,  and  when 
they  arrived  1  recognised  them  beyond  all 
possibility  of  mistake.  I  have  had  three  or 
four  very  vivid  and  striking  premonitions  in  my 
life  which  have  been  fulfilled  to  the  letter  .  .  . 

"  The  first  occasion  on  which  I  had  an 
absolutely  unmistakable  intimation  of  the 
change  about  to  occur  in  my  own  circumstances 
was  in  1880,  the  year  in  which  I  left  the 
editorship  of  the  Northern  Echo.  .  .  . 

"  On  New  Year's  day,  1880,  it  was  forcibly 
impressed  upon  my  mind  that  I  was  to  leave 
Darlington  in  the  course  of  that  year.  I 
remember  on  the  first  of  January  meeting  a 
journalistic  confrere  on  my  way  from  Darlington 
station  to  the  Northern  Echo  office.  After 
wishing  him  a  Happy  New  Year,  I  said,  '  This 
is  the  last  New  Year's  Day  I  shall  ever  spend  in 
Darlington.  I  shall  leave  the  Northern  Echo 
this  year.'  My  friend  looked  at  me  in  some 
amazement,  and  said,  '  And  where  are  you  going 
to?'  'To  London,'  I  replied,  'because  it  is 
the  only  place  which  could  tempt  me  from  my 

*  «  Real  Ghost  Stories." 


HIS   FIRST   PREMONITION  89 

present  position,  which  is  very  comfortable,  and 
where  1  have  perfect  freedom  to  say  my  say.' 
'But,'  said  my  friend,  somewhat  dubiously, 
'  what  paper  are  you  going  to  ? '  'I  have  no 
idea  in  the  world,'  I  said ;  '  neither  do  I  know 
a  single  London  paper  which  would  offer  me  a 
position  upon  its  staff,  of  any  kind,  let  alone 
one  on  which  I  should  have  any  liberty  of 
utterance.  1  see  no  prospect  of  any  opening 
anywhere.  But  I  know  for  certain  that  before 
this  year  is  out  I  shall  be  on  the  staff  of  a 
London  paper.'  '  Come,'  said  my  friend,  '  this 
is  superstition,  and  with  a  wife  and  family  I 
hope  you  will  do  nothing  rashly.'  '  You  need 
have  no  fear  as  to  that,'  I  said,  *  1  shall  not 
seek  any  position  elsewhere :  it  will  have  to 
come  to  me  if  I  have  to  go  to  it.  I  am  not 
going  to  throw  myself  out  of  a  berth  until  1 
know  where  my  next  place  is  to  be.  Humanly 
speaking,  I  see  no  chance  of  my  leaving 
Darlington,  yet  I  have  no  more  doubt  than  of 
my  own  existence  that  I  shall  be  gone  this 
time  next  year.'  We  parted.  The  General 
Election  soon  came  upon  us  and  when  the 
time  came  for  renewing  my  engagement  on  the 
Northern  Echo,  I  had  no  option  but  to  renew 
my  contract,  and  bind  myself  to  remain  at 
Darlington  until  July,  1881.  Although  I  signed 
the  contract,  when  the  day  arrived  on  which  I 
had  either  to  give  notice  or  renew  my  engage- 
ment, I  could  not  shake  from  me  the  conviction 
that  I  was  destined  to  leave  Darlington  at 
least  six  months  before  my  engagement  expired. 


MY   FATHER 

At  that  time  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  was 
edited  by  Mr.  Greenwood,  and  was,  of  all 
the  papers  in  the  land  the  most  anti-pathetic 
to  the  principles  upon  which  I  had  conducted 
the  Northern  Echo.  The  possibility  of  my 
becoming  assistant  editor  to  the  editor  of  the 
Pall  Mall  Gazette  seemed  at  that  time  about  as 
remote  as  that  of  the  Moderator  of  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland  receiving  a  cardinal's  hat 
from  the  Pope  of  Rome.  Nevertheless,  no 
sooner  had  Mr.  Gladstone  been  seated  in  power 
than  Mr.  George  Smith  handed  over  the  Pall 
Mall  Gazette  to  his  son-in-law,  Mr.  Henry 
Yates  Thompson.  Mr.  Greenwood  departed  to 
found  and  edit  the  St.  James'  Gazette,  and 
Mr.  Morley  *  became  editor.  Even  then  I  never 
dreamed  of  going  to  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette.  Two 
other  North-country  editors  and  I,  thinking  that 
Mr.  Morley  was  left  in  rather  a  difficulty  by  the 
secession  of  several  of  the  Pall  Mall  staff,  agreed 
to  send  up  occasional  contributions,  solely  f6r  the 
purpose  of  enabling  Mr.  Morley  to  get  through 
the  temporary  difficulty  in  which  he  was  placed 
by  being  suddenly  summoned  to  edit  a  daily 
paper  under  such  circumstances.  Midsummer 
had  hardly  passed  before  Mr.  Thompson  came 
down  to  Darlington  and  offered  me  the  assistant 
editorship.  The  proprietor  of  the  Northern 
Echo  kindly  waived  his  right  to  my  services 
in  deference  to  the  request  of  Mr.  Morley.  As 
a  result  I  left  the  Northern  Echo  in  September, 
1880,  and  my  presentiment  was  fulfilled. 

1  Now  Lord  Morley. 


HIS   FIRST   PREMONITION  91 

"  At  the  time  when  it  was  first  impressed  upon 
my  mind,  no  living  being  probably  anticipated 
the  possibility  of  such  a  change  occurring  in  the 
Pall  Mall  Gazette  as  would  render  it  possible  for 
me  to  become  assistant  editor,  so  that  the 
presentiment  could  in  no  way  have  been  due  to 
any  possible  calculation  of  chances  on  my  part." 

Referring  to  the  premonition  he  wrote  to  Mr.  J. 
Hyslop  Bell  :- 

"  July  28*A»  1880. 

You  may  remember  that  when  we  had  our 
last  discussion  about  probabilities  of  the  future,  I 
spoke  about  the  possibility  that  a  call  might  come 
summoning  me  to  go  hence.  1  said  that  I  had 
not  the  remotest  idea  from  whence  the  call 
might  come,  and  at  that  time  there  certainly 
seemed  about  as  much  chance  of  the  summons 
coming  from  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  as  from  the 
Daily  Telegraph." 

66  So,"  he  adds  elsewhere,  "  the  idyllic  life  at 
Darlington  came  to  a  close  .  .  .  But  I  refused 
to  go  until  I  could  find  a  place  under  green  trees 
where  1  could  stable  the  pony  and  surround  the 
children  with  the  simple  natural  life  to  which 
they  had  been  accustomed.  I  found  a  new 
home  for  them,  admirably  suited  to  their  needs, 
at  Cambridge  House,  Wimbledon." 

It  was  some  little  time  before  this  ideal  "  nest " 
was  discovered.  He  came  up  to  town  for  three 
months  before  finally  bringing  mother  and  the 
children  from  Darlington,  and  during  that  interval 


92  MY   FATHER 

he  lived  in  rooms  at  the  Inns  of  Court  Hotel,  and 
sometimes  with  his  chief,  Mr.  Morley,  at  the  latter  s 
residence  at  Putney.  Mother  came  up  on  a  visit, 
and  they  walked  across  to  Wimbledon  one  Sunday 
afternoon  to  see  the  house  that  was  destined  after- 
wards, in  the  fulness  of  time,  to  be  the  Inner  Sanc- 
tuary of  Julia's  Bureau. 

He  became  assistant  editor  of  the  Pall  Mall 
Gazette  under  Mr.  Moiley  in  1880  and  took  full 
command  of  that  paper  in  1884.  Later  he  thus 
briefly  outlined  the  general  policy  he  had  followed 
whilst  in  Darlington.  On  his  "  threefold  mission," 
as  he  loved  to  call  it,  "  Peace  L^Wjomani_Spirits  ; " 
only  the  two  first  as  yet  had  begun  to  find  ex- 
pression. His  efforts  on  behalf  of  an  Anglo- 
Russian  Alliance  marked  the  beginning  of  his 
long  and  strenuous  fight  for  peace.  He  says : — 

"  When  I  was  editing  the  Northern  Echo  I 
was  a  thorough-going  Gladstonian  of  a  very 
stalwart  fighting  kind,  with  a  wholesome  con- 
viction that  Tories  were  children  of  the  Devil, 
and  that  the  supreme  duty  of  a  Liberal  journalist 
was  to  win  as  many  seats  as  possible  for  tfye 
Liberal  Party.  We  were  very  successful,  and 
even  in  the  dark  hour  of  Conservatism  in  1874 
we  achieved  the  almost  unprecedented  feat  of 
carrying  all  the  Durham  seats  for  the  Liberal 
Party.  Unfortunately,  we  lost  some  of  them  on 
petition,  but  the  return  of  the  '  Durham  Thir- 
teen,' as  they  were  called,  was  a  somewhat 
notable  feat,  in  which  I  was  very  glad  to  have 
assisted.  It  was  this  which  led  me  to  publish 


HIS   FIRST   PREMONITION  93 

my  first  book  which  was  called  The  Durham 
Thirteen,  which  contained  the  biographies  of 
the  thirteen  members  who  were  returned  in 
the  Durham  constituency.  Unfortunately,  the 
election  petition  spoilt  the  thirteen,  and  there 
has  never  been  a  '  Durham  Thirteen '  since. 

"  In  the  Northern  Echo  I  preached  just  the 
same  as  I  preach  now,1  advocating  Industrial 
Arbitration  and  Imperial  Extension,  much  to 
the  horror  of  the  good  Quakers,  who  found,  I 
believe,  the  money  with  which  the  Echo  was 
established.  I  was  also  a  heretic  on  the  subject 
of  Capital  Punishment,  and  was  always  a  very 
strong  opponent  of  the  Permissive  Bill. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  I  was,  from  the  first, 
a  vehement  supporter  of  Mrs.  Josephine  Butler 
in  her  Crusade  against  the  C.D.  Acts.  I 
remember  very  well  how  my  mother  and  my 
wife's  mother  used  to  go  canvassing  our  village 
for  signatures  against  these  Acts  before  I  went 
into  journalism  at  all.  It  is  one  of  the  subjects 
on  which  I  have  always  been  quite  mad.  I  am 
ready  to  allow  anybody  to  discuss  anything  in  any 
newspaper  that  I  edit:  they  may  deny  the 
existence  of  God  or  of  the  soul :  they  may  blas- 
pheme all  the  angels  and  all  the  saints  :  they  may 
maintain  that  I  am  the  latest  authentic  incar- 
nation of  the  Devil.  But  one  thing  I  have  never 
allowed  them  to  do,  and  that  is  to  say  a  word 
in  favour  of  the  C.D.  Acts,  or  of  any  modifica- 
tion of  the  system  which  makes  women  the  chattels 
and  slaves  of  the  administration  for  the  purpose 
1  Written  in  1893. 


94  MY   FATHER 

of  administering  to  the  worst  passions  of  the 
other  sex.  That  is  the  only  subject  upon  which 
I  never  allow  anybody  to  say  a  word  upon  the 
devil's  side  in  any  paper  under  my  control. 

"It  is  very  curious  that  I  utterly  failed  to 
obtain  any  extraneous  literary  employment  all 
the  time  that  I  was  on  the  Northern  Echo.  I 
was  shut  down  and  kept  down  to  my  own  half- 
penny paper.  My  efforts  to  obtain  literary  work 
or  external  engagements  were  a  total  failure,  and 
a  very  good  thing  it  was  for  me  too,  although  I 
did  not  think  so  at  the  time.  What  made  me 
was  the  Bulgarian  Atrocities." 


CHAPTER  VII 

HIS    FIRST    SEANCE 

"  Young  man,  you  are  going  to  be  the  St.  Paul  of  Spiritualism." 
— Prophecy  made  at  his  first  seance,  1881. 

UP  to  and  before  this  period  of  his  life  (1880), 
there  is  no  record  whatever  of  any  leanings  on  his 
part  towards  the  study  of  the  Occult.  The  unseen 
forces  which  were  steadily  moving  him  along  the 
path  of  destiny,  had  their  own  way  of  working.  The  •' 
time  was  not  yet  ripe  for  his  conscious  communion  * 
with  the  denizens  of  the  Life  Beyond,  the  "  Land 
of  Realities,"  as  he  was  wont  to  call  it  in  after  years. 
But  the  bright  flame  of  spiritual  fervour  glowed 
within  his  soul ;  he  was  unceasingly  conscious  of 
being  impelled  by  the  great  guiding  Power,  towards 
Whom  all  his  thoughts  and  actions  were  constantly 
referred  as  boy,  as  youth,  as  man. 

But  now  comes  the  very  first  recorded  evidence 
of  an  awakening  interest  in  "  Spiritualism." 

It  is  related  by  Mr.  Mark  Fooks,  the  doyen  of 
North-country  journalists,  who  saw  much  of  him 
in  those  early  days.  Mr.  .Fooks  had  called  to  take 


96  MY   FATHER 

leave  of  him  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  from 
Darlington  and  found  the  little  homestead  of 
Grainey  Hill  in  the  chaos  of  "  mid-removal,"  when 
the  rooms  are  dismantled  and  there  remains  nothing 
to  be  done  but  sit  about  on  boxes  and  trunks,  await- 
ing the  final  departure  of  the  household  gods. 
They  talked,  and  their  conversation  took  a  psychic 
turn.  Mr.  Fooks  writes  :— 

"  As  we  sat  talking  he  asked  me  some  questions 
about  my  experiences  in  spiritualism  ;  it  being 
known  in  Darlington  that  I  had  some  knowledge 
of  the  matter.  For  an  hour  or  more  I  detailed 
some  of  the  evidence  I  had  received.  One 
matter  seemed  to  have  struck  him  more 
particularly,  for  after  he  got  to  London,  he 
wrote  me  about  printing  the  details  in  the  Pall 
Mall  Gazette. 

"  It  was  from  this  conversation  with  me  that 
his  interest  in  psychic  matters  seems  to  have  been 
awakened.  If  ever  I  met  him  in  London  after- 
wards, which  was  rarely,  he  generally  opened  out 
his  latest  experiences  in  connection  with  psychic 
matters,  and  more  than  once  remarked  '  you  are 
my  spiritual  father  in  this  thing.' ' 

Mr.  Fooks,  writing  to  him  in  1880,  thus  referred 
to  the  incident : 

"  I  have  thought  often  and  repeatedly  of  the 
last  night  at  Grainey  Hill.  I  feel  I  hardly  ought 
to  have  been  there  at  such  a  time  as  the  last.  I 
was  somewhat  of  an  intruder  on  what  would  be 
more  or  less  a  sacred  occasion  to  yourself  and 


HIS   FIRST   SEANCE  97 

your  good  wife.  However,  kindly  forgive  me. 
In  one  sense — one  personal  to  myself — I  am  glad 
I  was  there.  It  is  a  night,  somehow  I  feel,  to  be 
remembered, — the  talk  we  had  and  the  walk  home 
under  the  stars." 

Shortly  after  this,  and  soon  after  he  came  to 
London,  occurred  an  event  in  his  life  which, 
although  of  apparently  little  importance  at  the  time, 
he  afterwards  came  to  regard  as  a  signpost  pointing 
onwards  to  the  path  that  lay  ahead ;  one  of  the 
signposts  on  his  journey  through  life. 

"  Young  man,  you  are  going  to  be  the  St.  Paul  of  I 
Spiritualism." 

This  remarkable  prophecy  was  made  to  him  in 
1881,  when  he  attended  his  first  seance.  He  would 
often  tell  how,  when  the  seance  was  over,  and  as  he 
was  taking  his  leave,  the  medium,  Mr.  Burns,  rose 
and  solemnly  addressed  to  him  the  words  quoted 
above. 

The  following  is  his  own  account  of  the  seance 
written  with  a  view  to  publication,  which  accounts 
for  the  prophecy  being  omitted. 

"My  FIRST  SEANCE. 

"Two  nights  before  the  Speaker's  Coup  d'Etat, 
when  the  Obstructionists  had  brought  the  Con- 
stitutional Machine  to  a  standstill  by  their 
opposition  to  the  Coercion  Bill,  I  turned  away 
from  the  wearying  monologue  which  went  on 
without  ceasing  in  St.  Stephen's,  and  sought  for 
relief  from  the  dreariness  of  the  present  by 
attempting  to  peer  behind  the  impalpable  veil 

H 


98  MY   FATHER 

which  shrouds  the  future  from  our  gaze.  It 
was  with  an  uneasy  sense  of  wrong-doing  that  I 
made  my  way  to  the  haunt  of  the  modern 
Witch  of  Endor,  and  sought  from  sorcery  a 
vision  of  the  things  to  come.  I  consoled  myself 
by  thinking  that  I  could  not  waste  my  time 
more  utterly  by  listening  to  the  mutterings  of 
the  oracle  than  by  enduring  the  dreary  drone  of 
Members,  speaking  against  time,  in  an  empty 
House  ;  and  silencing  as  best  I  could  the  uneasy 
suspicion  of  being  a  party  to  a  vulgar  fraud,  I 
ventured  into  the  nineteenth  century  substitute 
for  the  Cave  of  Delphi.  I  found  it  without 
difficulty,  and  was  admitted  without  question. 
The  place  of  the  Pythian  Priestess  was  taken 
by  a  short  squat  little  man  whose  tripod  was  a 
substantial  armchair  at  one  end  of  a  square 
table,  around  which  sat  some  dozen  persons  who, 
like  myself,  were  apparently  anxious  to  gain  some 
relief  from  the  monotony  of  the  present  by 
peering  into  the  mysteries  of  the  future.  Two 
or  three  were  apparently  of  good  education.  The 
others  seemed  to  be  servant  girls  and  artisans. 
I  was  a  total  stranger  to  all  present,  none  of 
whom  I  knew  nor  did  they  know  either  my 
name  or  my  occupation.  Admission  was  free, 
but  at  the  close  freewill  offerings  were  collected 
from  those  who  cared  to  subscribe  for  maintenance 
of  the  shrine. 

"  The  proceedings  were  divided  into  two  parts, 
the  first  in  which  the  oracle  made  response  to 
unspoken  questions,  provided  they  could  be 
answered  by  '  Yes  '  or  '  No.'  The  hand  of  the 


HIS   FIRST   SEANCE  99 

Sorcerer  smote  the  table  once  for  No,  thrice 
for  Yes,  and  when  the  Oracle  was  uncertain, 
he  struck  it  twice.  The  movement  of  his 
hand  and  arm  was  convulsive,  as  if  beyond  his 
control.  And  the  curious  thing  about  it  was 
that  no  answer  was  returned  if  the  enquirer 
uttered  his  question  aloud.  To  a  question 
framed  in  the  mind,  to  which  no  utterance  was 
given,  an  answer  was  returned  immediately ; 
but  if  the  lips  moved  or  the  tongue  spoke,  the 
Oracle  was  dumb.  Everyone  present  had  the 
right  to  ask  as  many  inaudible  questions  about 
any  subjects,  past,  present,  or  to  come,  as  he 
pleased,  and  naturally  enough  most  of  the 
questions  which  were  put,  so  far  as  could  be 
gathered  from  the  conversation  which  sub- 
sequently took  place,  related  to  the  private 
concerns  of  the  questioner.  Most  of  those 
present  seemed  satisfied  with  the  nature  of  the 
responses.  Some  were  moved  to  tears.  In  no 
case  was  a  mistake  apparent.  Information  was 
given  about  persons  named  in  letters,  which 
were  unopened,  by  the  Sorcerer,  which,  in  one 
case  at  least,  was  strangely  near  the  mark.  At 
last  my  turn  came.  Full  of  the  scandalous 
scene  which  at  that  moment  was  going  on 
in  Parliament,  I  asked  mentally,  'Will  the 
Government  get  their  Coercion  Bill  through 
this  Session?"  There  was  a  pause,  as  if  the 
Oracle  was  to  be  dumb.  I  repeated  it  mentally 
two  or  three  times,  and  then  came  an  emphatic 
YES.  Instantly  I  asked  (always,  be  it  re- 
membered, in  my  own  mind,  without  syllabling 

H  2 


100  MY   FATHER 

my  thoughts),  'Will  it  be  passed  before 
Easter  ? '  And  as  instantly  came  an  affirmative 
reply.  '  Will  the  Cabinet  remain  intact  ? '  I 
thought ;  and  immediately  the  Sorcerer  answered 
NO.  Somewhat  staggered  I  asked,  'who  will 
go  out  ? '  But  as  this  question  could  not  be 
answered  by  Yes  or  No,  there  was  no  reply. 
As  the  Oracle  was  dumb  I  changed  my  thought 
—query,  into  an  answerable  form.  '  Will  it 
be  Mr.  Forster?'  No.  'Mr.  Chamberlain?' 
Doubtful.  I  did  not  prosecute  the  enquiry 
further.  I  did  not  regard  the  matter  seriously 
enough.  Nor  was  it  till  sometime  after  the 
Duke  of  Argyle  left  the  Cabinet  that  the  memory 
of  the  Sorcerer's  prediction  led  me  to  recall  the 
other  prophecies  in  which  he  had  indulged. 

" '  Will  Mr.  Gladstone  survive  the  worry  of 
the  Session  ? '  I  asked,  after  a  few  seconds'  delay, 
during  which  I  was  collecting  my  thoughts. 
Instantly,  although  there  was  no  sign  that  I 
had  put  a  question,  came  the  answer  YES. 
'  Will  the  House  of  Lords  pass  the  Land  Bill  ? ' 
YES.  I  then  desisted  from  further  questioning, 
and  waited  for  the  second  act. 

"  After  a  period  of  silence  the  Pythian  Priest, 
upon  his  armchair  tripod,  began  to  moan  and 
writhe  as  if  in  pain,  and,  after  sundry  grunts  and 
groans,  greeted  the  company  with  a  squeaky  voice, 
and  we  were  told  that  he  was  now  '  possessed, '- 
they  told  me,  at  the  close  of  the  Sitting,  by  none 
other  than  the  famous  Mother  Shipton, — who 
would  answer  any  question  on  any  subject  those 
present  cared  to  ask  about.  Not  knowing  that 


HIS   FIRST   SEANCE  101 

it  was  Mother  Shipton,  I  did  not  understand 
exactly  the  point  of  some  of  the  questions,  but 
gathered  generally  that  there  was  to  be  a  very 
virulent  form  of  disease  prevalent  in  London, 
to  avoid  which  absolute  cleanliness  of  body  and 
great  simplicity  of  diet  was  indispensable.  To 
eat  whole-wheat  bread  and  vegetables,  and  drink 
water  unpolluted  by  tea  or  coffee,  to  say  nothing 
of  all  alcoholic  drinks,  were  some  of  the  old 
dame's  directions,  to  which  I  paid  but  scant 
attention.  When  my  turn  came,  I  asked  the 
Sorcerer  if  there  would  be  war  in  the  East  of 
Europe.  He  replied  somewhat  vaguely,  but  by 
dint  of  cross-examination  I  was  told  that  the 
prevalent  expectation  that  the  Greek  Frontier 
Question  would  result  in  war  in  April  was 
wrong.  War  would  certainly  not  break  out  in 
two  months,  nor  even,  I  believe,  although  I  am 
not  quite  sure,  in  four.  Reverting  to  Ireland 
the  Sorcerer,  or  Mother  Shipton,  furnished  me 
with  a  forecast  of  the  future  which  is  not  with- 
out interest.  The  state  of  things  in  Ireland,  said 
he,  or  she,  is  very  bad  and  would  have  been 
worse  but  for  the  precautions  the  Government 
have  taken.  The  Coercion  Bill  would  be  passed, 
but  it  would  not  be  employed  to  dragoon  the 
people  or  to  put  down  agitation.  There  would 
be  more  bark  than  bite.  Precautions  against 
possible  dangers  rather  than  measures  to  crush  the 
Land  League  movement  would  be  taken.  But 
they  would  not  pacify  Ireland.  Neither  would  the 
Land  Bill.  The  movement  was  in  the  hands  of 
men  who  wished  to  direct  it,  not  so  much  for  the 


102  MY   FATHER 

reform  of  the  Land  Laws,  as  against  the  English 
Government.  For  two  years  things  would  go 
on  simmering  into  insurrection.  Ultimately 
some  armed  steamers  from  America  with  a  force 
of  American  Irish  on  board  would  evade  English 
cruisers,  cross  the  Atlantic,  and  land  their  forces 
on  the  North-  West  coast  of  Ireland.  Their  land- 
ing would  be  the  signal  for  the  outburst  of  an 
insurrection.  The  peasants  were  armed,  and  they 
would  rise  against  the  English  Government. 
Then  they  would  be  crushed,  and  the  insurrection 
stamped  out,  and  Ireland,  I  understood,  would 
once  more  be  at  peace.  But  the  Land  Agitation, 
although  thus  destined  to  a  bloody  end,  when 
diverted  from  its  legitimate  object,  was  useful 
not  only  for  the  sake  of  the  Irish,  but  equally  for 
the  sake  of  the  English.  *  It  is  a  great  educa- 
tional movement.  Ireland  is  teaching  England 
and  Scotland,  and  in  two  or  three  years  you  will 
have  the  agitation  just  as  ripe  in  this  country  as 
it  is  now  in  Ireland.'  The  Sorcerer,  his  eyes 
being  closed,  went  on,  with  much  animation,  to 
predict  the  downfall  of  our  landed  aristocracy, 
and  the  total  revolution  of  our  economic  system. 
'  On  this  side  with  us,  those  nobles,'  said,  what 
was  supposed  to  be  the  voice  of  Mother  Shipton, 
'  have  no  more  land  than  other  people  and  are 
far  below  many  of  those  whom  when  on  earth 
they  would  have  spurned  from  their  doors.'  And 
Mother  Shipton  chuckled  with  malignant  glee  at 
the  thought  of  the  retributive  justice  which 
awaited  the  aristocrats  on  the  "  Other  Side."  But 
she  went  on  to  dilate  on  the  coming  revolution 


HIS   FIRST   SEANCE 


108 


in  a  way  that  somewhat  surprised  me.  All  cap- 
italists, railway  shareholders,  factory  owners,  and 
the  like,  were  soon  to  learn  that  their  day  of 
unrestricted  power  was  at  an  end.  Before  long, 
she  said,  they  would  be  told  to  take  as  their  share 
a  certain  percentage.  I  forget  whether  she  said 
three,  three-and-a-half  or  five.  And  all  the  rest 
of  the  profits  will  be  divided  among  the  work- 
men. 

"  All  this  and  much  more  was  to  be  done. 
*  But  what  will  the  House  of  Lords  say  to  this  ? ' 
I  asked,  as  the  prediction  came  to  a  close.  '  The 
House  of  Lords  will  have  to  put  its  own  house  in 
order.'  '  And  the  crown,  will  it  survive  ! '  '  That 
depends,'  was  the  cautious  reply.  '  But,'  I 
objected,  '  what  about  the  Obstructives  ? '  '  Oh,' 
she  replied  contemptuously,  6  they  will  be  snuffed 
out  in  a  moment  when  the  time  comes.'  I 
smiled  incredulously  when  I  heard  the  confident 
prediction,  but  within  thirty-six  hours  the 
Speaker  launched  his  fiat  and  Mother  Shipton's 
words,  in  that  respect  at  least,  came  promptly 
true." 

Commenting  upon  this  evening  later,  he  wrote : 

"  I  did  not  think  much  about  it  at  the  time  ; 
but  on  looking  back  to  the  evening  I  spent  in 
the  Sorcerer's  Cave,  I  begin  to  think  that  perhaps 
my  time  was  spent  at  least  as  profitably  as  if  I 
had  passed  the  weary  hours  at  the  House  of 
Commons  listening  to  the  oratory  of  Mr.  Biggar, 
Mr.  Finnigan,  and  Mr.  Healy." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

1880—1885 

"  If  I  had  to  single  out  any  one  chapter  in  the  Bible  which  I 
am  conscious  of  having  influenced  me  most,  I  should  say  the  first 
of  Joshua,  with  its  oft  repeated  exhortation  to  be  strong  and  to 
be  very  courageous ;  and  if  I  had  to  single  out  any  particular 
verses  it  would  be  those  which  were  taught  me  when  a  boy  and 
which  I  long  afterwards  saw  on  the  wall  in  General  Gordon's 
room  in  Southampton  :  '  Trust  in  the  Lord  with  all  thine  heart, 
lean  not  unto  thine  own  understanding.  In  all  thy  ways 
acknowledge  Him,  and  He  shall  direct  thy  paths.'"—  W.  T. 
STEAD.  "  Books  which  have  Influenced  me." 

FATHER  never  actually  kept  a  regular  diary,  yet 
his  writings  were  always  frankly  autobiographical. 
The  following  private  memorandum,  made  in  1880 
when  he  joined  the  P.M.G.,  reveals  the  idealism 
which  formed  the  basis  of  his  own  editorial 
creed  :— 

"  Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

66  Ideal  to  be  aimed  at.  '  Thy  Kingdom  Come, 
Thy  Will  be  done  on  Earth  as  it  is  in  Heaven.' 

"  To  be  ever  in  the  van,  going  ahead,  accept- 
ing the  responsibilities  and  discharging  the 
duties  of  leadership  of  our  race  in  its  upward 
strivings  after  the  ideal — to  hear  new  words 


104 


IT.  cfc  D.  Doicney. 

MY  FATHER,  1881,  WHEN  EDITOR  OF  THE  "PALL  MALL  GAZETTE." 


1880—1885  105 

of  command  in  every  cry  of  the  sorrowing,  and 
be  goaded  and  spurred  on  to  fresh  exertion  by 
every  spectacle  of  sin  and  misery. 

"  Every  man  and  woman  who  falls  short  of 
the  perfect  manhood  of  Christ  Jesus,  cries  out  for 
help  to  realise  that  manhood  which  is  their  birth- 
right in  Christ,  with  earnestness  and  emphasis, 
proportioned  to  his  remoteness  from  the  ideal 
(Lowell's  '  A  Parable,'  last  verse1).  Men  make 
Christ's  image  into  paupers  and  prostitutes. 

"  To  redeem  the  world,  every  agency  for  good   / 
is  needed,  and  new  agencies  still. 

"  The  great  need,  intelligent  sympathy  and 
imagination. 

"  True  Catholicity,  character,  all  else  included, 
to  be  encouraged  ;  their  baser  parts  discouraged, 
more  by  favour  to  the  good  than  direct  censure. 

"  To  work  on,  to  yearn  on  in  faith. 

"  Christ,  the  best  remedy  for  pessimism  and 
despair.  He  saw  all  the  chances,  and  seeing, 
chose  as  the  best  part,  the  life  of  shame,  sorrow, 
and  death.  The  prize  was  worth  the  sacrifice. 
If  it  was  so  for  Him,  it  is  not  less  so  for  us." 

Of  the  interval  that  elapsed  between  his  arrival 
at  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  in  1880  and  his  rousing 

1  Then  Christ  sought  out  an  artisan, 
A  low-browed,  stunted,  haggard  man  ; 
And  a  motherless  girl,  whose  fingers  thin 
Pushed  from  her  faintly  want  and  sin. 

These  set  He  in  the  midst  of  them, 
And  as  they  drew  back  their  garment-hem, 
For  fear  of  defilement,  "  Lo,  here,"  said  He, 
"  The  images  ye  have  made  of  Me  !  " 


MY   FATHER 

the  conscience  of  England  in  1885  with  the  horrors 
of  the  Maiden  Tribute  of  Modern  Babylon,  it  is 
impossible  to  give  other  than  a  brief  survey.  The 
pages  of  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  of  those  days  form 
the  stirring  chronicle  of  a  time  when,  as  has  been 
said  of  him,  "  he  practically  moulded  the  England 
of  his  day  to  a  larger  degree  than  any  man  in  it." 
He  grappled  with  the  problems  of  Time  and  the 
Hour.  He  waged  unceasing  warfare  against  jingo- 
ism in  every  shape  or  form.  He  became  an  enthu- 
siastic advocate  of  a  beneficent  Imperialism  and 
"  the  necessity  for  using  the  policeman  to  exorcise 
the  soldier."  In  his  own  words,  "I  became  an 
impassioned  Imperialist,  but  my  Imperialism  was 
always  an  Imperialism  of  responsibility,  or  as  I 
phrased  it,  an  Imperialism,  plus  common-sense  and 
the  Ten  Commandments":  and  he  preached  a 
gospel  for  Social  Service  in  which  "duties,"  not 
"  rights  "  were  the  standard  of  equality. 

He  wrote :  "  Empire  was  to  me  not  a  source  of 
pride,  excepting  in  so  far  as  it  was  the  emblem  of  duty 
done,  of  burdens  borne,  for  the  sake  of  humanity." 

But  the  events  which  stood  out  clearly  in  his  own 
mind  above  all  others,  as  the  milestones  of  his  life, 
during  the  period  of  the  early  eighties,  were  three: — 
his  interview  with  General  Gordon ;  his  articles  on 
"  The  Truth  about  the  Navy  "  ;  and  last  and  great- 
est ;  «  The  Maiden  Tribute  of  Modern  Babylon." 

Of  the  first  named,  his  interview  with  Gordon, 
he  wrote  afterwards  :  "  It  was  an  historic  interview, 
which  made  an  abiding  impression  on  my  mind." 

The  interview  was  so  historic  that  it  made  con- 


1880—1885  107 

temporary  history.  .It  made  such  an  abiding  im- 
pression on  my  Father's  mind,  and  apparently  also 
on  the  mind  of  General  Gordon,  that  long  years 
afterwards  his  spirit  recalled  the  episode  and  took 
up  the  old  thread  of  their  discourse  1  ;  so,  I  feel,  it 
will  not  be  misplaced  to  give  here  a  few  details  of 
the  events  which  led  up  to  it. 

1  Referring  to  this  my  Father  wrote  : — 

"  Nineteen  years  after  Gordon  had  met  his  death,  when 
Khartoum  was  captured,  in  company  with  the  same  officer,*  I  was 
sitting  with  a  medium,  well  known  on  the  Continent,  of  the  name 
of  Mr.  Alfred  Peters.  Towards  the  close  of  the  stance,  greatly 
to  my  astonishment,  without  the  slightest  expectation  either  on 
the  part  of  my  friend  or  myself,  Mr.  Peters  was  controlled  by  an 
intelligence  whose  identity  neither  of  us  could,  for  a  moment, 
doubt.  It  was  exactly  as  if  General  Gordon  himself  had  taken 
a  seat  in  the  chair.  His  mannerism,  which  was  very  marked,  his 
quick,  brusque,  humorous  mode  of  speech  was  exactly  reproduced. 
He  took  up  our  old  conversation  at  Southampton  twenty  years 
ago,  asked  me  if  I  remembered  about  matters,  some  of  which  I  did 
remember,  some  of  which  I  had  forgotten,  and  none  of  which  the 
medium  could  possibly  have  known.  He  talked  away  with  the 
same  keen  intelligence,  political  acumen,  and  dogmatic  assurance 
which  distinguished  him  during  his  physical  life.  He  recognised 
us  both,  spoke  to  us  both  in  the  same  friendly  fashion,  and  poured 
out  a  stream  of  conversation  that  was  a  mixture  of  theology, 
mysticism,  and  high  politics,  and  his  personal  reminiscences  bore 
in  every  sentence  the  true  Gordon  stamp.  I  have  had  many 
remarkable  sittings  in  my  life,  but  I  do  not  remember  any  seance 
in  which  the  control  was  more  absolutely  perfect.  The  character 
of  General  Gordon  was  strongly  marked.  He  was  intensely 
original,  full  of  personality,  and  at  the  same  time  he  had  been 
dead  so  long  that  the  medium,  Mr.  Peters,  who  was  a  mere  boy 
when  Gordon  died,  could  not  possibly  have  acquired  his  habits  of 
speech,  his  mode  of  thought,  or  his  recollection  of  the  topics 
which  he  had  discussed  with  me  twenty  years  before." 

*  Major-General  Brocklehurst 


108  MY   FATHER 

With  regard  to  the  situation  at  the  time,  Father 
wrote: — "When  in  1879  the  Governments  of 
England  and  France,  acting  through  the  Sultan  and 
at  the  prompting  of  Bismarck,  deposed  Ismail 
Pasha  and  set  up  Tewfik  on  the  throne  of  Egypt, 
they  committed  themselves  to  a  pseudo- Protectorate 
of  the  Nile." 

Our  Protectorate  of  Egypt  involved  also  the 
Protectorate  of  Egypt's  dependency,  the  Soudan, 
which  she  had  acquired  in  the  year  1819,  with  much 
horrible  bloodshed.  We  had  therefore,  in  the 
opinion  of  statesmen  best  calculated  TO  judge,  a 
moral  responsibility,  which  would  not  allow  of  our 
abandoning  Khartoum. 

In  an  interview  which  my  Father  had  with  ex- 
Khedive  Ismail,  in  London,  the  latter  stated  that 
the  "disturbance  in  the  Soudan  had  been  caused, 
to  a  great  extent,  by  the  weakness  of  the  central 
government  at  Cairo,  and  by  that  absence  of 
individual  care  and  superintendence,  which  is 
necessary  to  the  preservation  of  order  in  Egypt, 
and  especially  of  her  remoter  provinces.  In  every 
part  of  the  Soudan  much  power  is  in  the  hands  of 
a  number  of  religious  chiefs  and  dervishes,  who  can 
easily  be  managed,  but  who  are  very  dangerous  and 
capable  of  doing  infinite  harm  if  neglected." 

After  the  deposition  of  Khedive  Ismail  in 
1879,  General  Gordon,  who  was  at  the  head  of  the 
British  troops  in  Egypt,  resigned  his  command. 
Next  broke  out  Arabi  Pasha's  revolt,  and  "  hard 
times  in  the  Soudan,  the  usual  extortions,  and 
general  discontent  owing  to  the  suppression  of  the 


1880—1885  109 

slave  trade,  prepared  a  soil  most  favourable  to  the 
germination  of  religious  seed  cast  upon  the  wayside 
by  a  fanatic  Mahdi "...  but,  "  with  all  the  Eastern 
Soudan  to  give  away,  it  ought  not  to  be  impossible 
to  come  to  terms,  even  with  a  Mahdi ;  "  and,  at  any 
rate,  nothing  could  possibly  annihilate  the  responsi- 
bility of  England  for  maintaining  order  in  Egypt, 
having  taken  in  her  own  hands  the  "  Protectorate 
of  the  Nile." 

At  that  point,  having  been  summoned  from 
Jerusalem  by  the  King  of  the  Belgians  to  take 
charge  of  an  anti-slavery  expedition  up  the  Congo, 
General  Gordon  arrived  in  England  from  Brussels. 
He  proceeded  at  once  to  his  sister's  house  on  the 
outskirts  of  Southampton,  and  it  was  there  that  the 
famous  interview  with  my  Father  took  place. 

Father  went  down  to  Southampton  and,  "seated 
on  a  couch  covered  with  leopard  skins,  in  the  quiet 
Southampton  drawing  room,"  succeeded  in  obtain- 
ing from  Gordon's  own  lips  a  frank  and  free 
statement  of  his  opinion  on  the  crisis,  indeed  the 
"only  authentic  statement  of  General  Gordon's 
views  on  the  Soudan  which  has  been  made 
public." 

His  phenomenal  memory  enabled  him  to  dictate 
immediately  afterwards  an  almost  verbatim  account 
of  the  conversation,  the  accuracy  of  which  was 
vouchsafed  for  by  the  only  other  person  present1 

1  Captain  Brocklehurst,  now  Major-General  Brocklehurst. 
This  was  the  first  occasion  on  which  Father  and  General 
Brocklehurst  met ;  it  marked  the  beginning  of  what  was  to  be  a 
lifelong  friendship. 


110  MY   FATHER 

It  was  published  in  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette,  and 
afterwards  as  a  special  supplement  under  the  title 
of  "  England,  Gordon  and  the  Soudan." 

An  immediate  change  in  the  situation  followed 
the  publication  of  the  interview.  Father  wrote  : — 

"  Since  Mordecai  the  Jew  was  led  in  triumph 
through  the  streets  of  Shushan,  there  surely 
but  seldom  has  been  so  sudden  an  alteration  in 
human  fortunes.  But  yesterday  not  a  Minister 
would  even  do  Gordon  the  honour  of  asking  his 
counsel.  To-day  he  is  the  master  of  the  situa- 
tion— the  virtual  Sovereign  of  the  Soudan." 

Many  years  later,  when  the  sad  and  terrible 
episode  of  Gordon's  forlorn  struggle  and  heroic 
stand  had  become  one  more  brilliant  memory  in 
English  history,  he  thus  briefly  summed  up  the  end 
of  the  story  :— 

"  I  succeeded  in  compelling  the  Government 
to  send  out  General  Gordon,  believing  that  it 
was  shameful  on  our  part  to  proclaim  the 
abandonment  of  the  country  and  to  take  no 
adequate  steps  to  secure  the  safe  retirement  of 
the  abandoned  garrisons.  General  Gordon  being 
besieged  in  Khartoum,  I  insisted  upon  the 
despatch  of  Lord  Wolseley  to  rescue  him  from 
the  perilous  position  in  which  he  was  placed  by 
a  Government  which  had  refused  either  to  allow 
him  a  free  hand,  or  to  supply  him  with  an 
adequate  force  to  carry  out  his  instructions. 
This  led  many  to  hold  me  responsible  for  the 
war  in  the  Soudan,  but  an  examination  of  every- 


1880—1885  111 

thing  I  wrote  in  those  days  will  vindicate  me 
from  such  an  accusation.  When  Gordon  fell  I 
was  the  first  to  protest  against  the  wild  cry  for 
vengeance  that  was  raised  in  this  country,  and 
no  one  felt  more  humiliated  than  myself  at  the 
horrible  blasphemy  perpetrated  ten  years  later 
by  Lord  Kitchener  when  he  desecrated  the  tomb 
of  the  Mahdi  and  held  a  solemn  Christian 
service  of  thanksgiving  in  the  midst  of  the 
corpses  of  those  who  were  slain  in  the  avenging 
of  Gordon." 

It  was  at  the  close  of  this,  their  only  earthly 
meeting,  and  after  the  conversation  had  passed 
from  the  responsibilities  of  governments  to  the 
wider  issues  of  human  destiny,  that  General 
Gordon  gave  to  him,  as  they  parted,  his  own 
little  pocket  copy  of  "  The  Imitation  "  of  Thomas 
a  Kempis,  in  which  he  had  marked  the  following 
passages : — 

"Follow  thou  Me.  For  what  is  it  to  thee 
whether  this  man  be  such  or  such,  or  that  others 
do  or  say  thus  and  thus  ? " 

And  again  : — 

"  It  is  written,  let  not  thy  peace  be  in  the 
tongues  of  men ;  for  whether  they  put  a  good 
or  bad  construction  on  what  thou  doest,  thou 
art  not  therefore  another  man.  Where  is  true 
peace  and  true  glory?  Is  it  not  in  Me  ?  And  he 
who  covets  not  to  please  men  and  fears  not  their 
displeasure  has  much  peace." 


112  MY  FATHER 

It  was  soon  after  this  that  he  took  the  firm 
stand  with  regard  to  the  British  Navy  which  was 
to  render  him  the  bete-noire  of  the  professional 
peace-party,  who  believe,  he  said :  "  that  it  is 
wrong  to  have  any  fleet  at  all,"  and,  from  this 
time  forward,  he  never  varied  in  his  contention  that 
"  on  the  supremacy  of  the  British  Navy  depends  the 
peace  of  the  whole  world." 

"  I  have  always  been  a  strong  opponent  of  con- 
scription," he  wrote  later.  "  Compulsory  military 
service  seemed  to  me  detestable.  But  in  1884  I 
realised  with  horror  that  the  British  Navy  had  sunk 
to  such  a  condition  of  comparative  weakness  that 
conscription  might  any  day  become  inevitable, 
owing  to  the  collapse  of  our  first  line  of  defence. 
I  wrote  a  series  of  articles  called  '  The  Truth 
about  the  Navy,'  which  led  to  the  rebuilding  of 
the  British  Navy  and  so  averted  a  threatened 
danger.  But  the  demand  for  an  increased  navy, 
which  alone  stood  between  us  and  the  curse  of 
compulsory  service,  was  bitterly  resented  by 
those  whose  one  idea  of  peace  was  to  cut  down 
armaments." 

It  was  this  famous  series  of  articles,  consisting 
simply  of  plain  straightforward  answers  to  twelve 
searching  questions,  under  the  title  of  "  The  Truth 
about  the  Navy,"  which  first  brought  him  into  that 
close  association  with  Lord  Fisher,1  which  was 
maintained  up  to  the  very  last.  The  articles,  after 
appearing  in  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  in  1884,  under 
the  nom-de-plume  of  "  One  Who  Knows,"  were 

1  Then  Captain  Jack  Fisher. 


1880—1885 

afterwards  republished  in  pamphlet  form,  again 
enlarged  to  book  form. 

Though  the  "  Truth  about  ihe  Navy "  was 
published  at  a  time  when  the  Franchise  Agitation 
was  at  its  climax,  the  articles  succeeded  in  arousing 
an  enormous  sensation.  The  state  of  affairs  so 
suddenly  revealed  by  this  unexpected  searchlight 
from  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette,  drew  from  the  whole 
of  the  intelligent  body  of  the  nation  the  emphatic 
declaration  that  naval  supremacy  must  be  restored  ; 
and  evoked  from  a  more  esoteric  quarter — the 
Service  itself — the  unanimous  opinion  that  the  state- 
ments contained  were  "  exceptionally  moderate  and 
accurate." 

He  made  familiar  and  popular  the  phrase  "  Two 
Keels  to  One  " — which  has  passed  for  ever  into  the 
English  language,  not  as  a  mere  party  cry,  but  as 
an  epigrammatic  definition  of  what  must  be 
England's  perpetual  naval  policy  if  our  island  is  to 
retain  her  natural  and  necessary  supremacy  on  the 
sea. 


CHAPTER  IX 

HIS    SECOND    PREMONITION 

"  No  person  can  have  premonitions  such  as  I  have  had  without 
feeling  that  such  premonitions  are  the  only  certainties  of  the 
future.  They  will  be  fulfilled,  no  matter  how  incredible  they 
may  appear ;  and  amid  the  endless  shifting  circumstances  of  our 
life,  these  fixed  points,  towards  which  we  are  inevitably  tending, 
help  to  give  steadiness  to  a  career,  and  a  feeling  of  security  to 
which  the  majority  of  men  are  strangers." — W.  T.  STEAD. 

His  assuming  full  control  of  the  Pall  Mall 
Gazette  was  curiously  foretold  to  him  at  a  time 
when,  according  to  all  human  calculation,  nothing 
appeared  more  unlikely.  He  always  alluded  to 
this  as  his  "  second  premonition  ; "  and  it  came  to 
him  in  much  the  same  manner  as  did  the  first  one 
which  related  to  his  leaving  the  Northern  Echo. 

66  My  second  premonition,"  he  says  in  Real 
Ghost  Stories,  "was  equally  as  clear  as  my  first  and 
without  any  suggestion  from  outward  circum- 
stances. It  was  in  October,  1883.  My  wife  and  I 
were  spending  a  brief  holiday  in  the  Isle  of  Wight, 
and  I  remember  that  the  great  troopers  which 
had  just  brought  back  Lord  Wolseley's  army 


114 


HIS   SECOND   PREMONITION       115 

from  the  first  Egyptian  campaign,  were  lying  in 
the  Solent  when  we  crossed.  One  morning, 
about  noon,  we  were  walking  in  the  drizzling 
rain  round  St.  Catherine's  Point.  It  was  a 
miserable  day,  the  ground  slippery  and  the  foot- 
path here  and  there  rather  difficult  to  follow. 
Just  as  we  were  at  about  the  ugliest  part  of  our 
climb  I  felt  distinctly,  as  it  were,  a  voice  within 
myself  saying :  '  You  will  have  to  look  sharp 
and  make  ready,  because  by  a  certain  date 
(which,  as  near  as  I  can  recollect,  was  16th 
March  of  the  next  year),  you  will  have  sole 
charge  of  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette.'  I  was  just 
a  little  startled  and  rather  awed,  because,  as 
Mr.  Morley  was  then  in  full  command  and  there 
was  no  expectation  on  his  part  of  abandoning 
the  post,  the  inference  which  I  immediately 
drew  was  that  he  was  going  to  die.  So  firmly 
was  this  impressed  upon  my  mind  that  for  two 
hours  I  did  not  speak  about  it  to  my  wife.  We 
took  shelter  for  a  time  from  the  rain,  but  after- 
wards, on  going  home,  I  spoke,  not  without 
reluctance,  on  the  subject  that  filled  me  with 
sadness,  and  said  to  my  wife :  '  Something  has 
happened  to  me  which  has  made  a  great  im- 
pression upon  my  mind.  When  we  were  beside 
St.  Catherine's  lighthouse  I  got  into  my  head 
that  Mr.  Morley  was  going  to  die.' 

"  '  Nonsense '  said  she,  '  what  made  you  think 
that  ? ' 

"  *  Only  this,'  said  I,  '  that  I  received  an 
intimation  as  clear  and  unmistakable  as  that 
which  1  had  when  I  was  going  to  leave  Darling- 

i  2 


116  MY  FATHER 

ton,  that  1  had  to  look  sharp  and  prepare  for 
taking  the  sole  charge  of  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette, 
on  March  16th  next.  That  is  all,  and  I  do  not 
see  how  that  is  likely  to  happen  unless  Mr. 
Morley  is  going  to  die.' 

"  '  Nonsense,'  said  my  wife,  '  he  is  not  going  to 
die.  He  is  going  to  get  into  Parliament ;  that  is 
what  is  going  to  happen.' 

"  '  Well,'  said  1,  « that  may  be.  Whether  he 
dies  or  whether  he  gets  into  Parliament  the  one 
thing  certain  to  me  is  that  I  shall  have  sole 
charge  of  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  next  year,  and 
I  am  so  convinced  of  this  that  when  we  return  to 
London  I  shall  make  all  my  plans  on  the  basis  of 
that  certainty.' 

"  And  so  I  did.  I  do  not  hedge  and  hesitate 
at  burning  my  boats.  As  soon  as  I  arrived  at 
the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  Office,  I  announced  to 
Mr.  Thompson,  Mr.  Morley,  and  to  Mr.  Milner,1 
who  was  then  on  the  staff,  that  Mr.  Morley  was 
going  to  be  in  Parliament  by  March  16th  next. 
I  need  hardly  say  I  did  not  mention  my  first 
sinister  intimation.  I  told  Mr.  Morley  and  the 
others  exactly  what  had  happened,  namely,  that 
I  had  received  notice  to  be  ready  to  take 
sole  charge  of  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  by 
March  16th  next.  They  shrugged  their  shoulders, 
and  Mr.  Morley  scouted  the  idea.  He  said  he 
had  almost  given  up  the  idea  of  entering 
Parliament,  all  preceding  negotiations  had  fallen 
through,  and  he  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
he  would  stick  to  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette.  I  said 

1  Now  Lord  Milner. 


HIS   SECOND   PREMONITION       117 

he  might  have  come  to  what  conclusion  he 
pleased,  the  fact  remained  that  he  would  go. 
I  remember  having  a  talk  at  the  time  with 
Mr.  Milner  about  it.  I  remarked  that  the  worst 
of  people  having  premonitions  was  that  they 
carefully  hide  up  their  prophecies  until  after  the 
event  and  then  no  one  believed  in  them.  '  This 
time  no  one  shall  have  any  doubt  that  I  have  had 
my  premonition  well  in  advance  of  the  fact.  It 
is  now  October.  I  have  told  everybody  whom  it 
concerns  whom  I  know.  If  it  happens  not  to 
come  to  pass  I  will  never  have  faith  in  my 
premonitions  any  more  and  you  may  chaff  me  as 
much  as  you  please  for  the  superstition.  But  if 
it  turns  up  trumps,  please  remember  that  I  have 
played  doubles  or  quits  and  won.' 

"Nobody  at  the  office  paid  much  attention 
to  my  vision,  and  a  couple  of  months  later 
Mr.  Morley  came  to  consult  me  as  to  some 
slight  change  which  he  proposed  to  make  in 
the  terms  of  his  engagement,  which  he  was 
renewing  for  another  year.  As  this  change 
affected  me  slightly  he  came,  with  that  courtesy 
and  consideration  which  he  always  displayed 
in  his  dealings  with  his  staff,  to  ask  whether 
I  should  have  any  objection  to  this  alteration. 
As  he  was  beginning  to  explain  what  this 
alteration  would  be  I  interrupted  him.  '  Excuse 
me,  Mr.  Morley,'  I  said,  'when  will  this  new 
arrangement  come  into  effect ? '  'In  May,  I 
think,'  was  the  reply.  'Then,'  said  I,  'you 
need  not  trouble  to  discuss  it  with  me.  I 
shall  have  sole  charge  of  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette 


118  MY   FATHER 

before  that  time.  You  will  not  be  here  then, 
you  will  be  in  Parliament.' 

"  *  But,'  said  Mr.  Morley,  4  that  is  only  your 
idea ;  what  I  want  to  know  is  whether  you 
agree  to  the  changes  I  propose  to  make,  which 
somewhat  affect  your  work  in  the  office.' 
6  But,'  I  replied,  '  it  is  no  use  your  discussing 
that  matter  with  me.  You  will  not  be  here,  and 
I  shall  be  carrying  on  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  ; 
so  what  is  the  use  of  talking  about  it  ?  ' 

"  Then  Mr.  Morley  lifted  his  chin  slightly  in 
the  air,  and  looking  at  me,  with  somewhat  natural 
disdain,  he  asked :  '  And  pray,  do  you  mean 
to  tell  me  that  I  am  not  to  make  a  business 
arrangement  because  you  have  had  a  vision  ?  ' 

" '  Not  at  all,'  said  I,  '  you,  of  course,  will 
make  what  business  arrangements  you  please. 
I  cannot  expect  you  to  govern  your  conduct 
by  my  vision.  But  as  I  shall  have  charge  of 
the  paper  it  is  no  use  your  discussing  the 
matter  with  me.  Make  what  arrangements  you 
please,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned  they  are 
waste-paper.  I  ask  you  nothing  about  the 
arrangement,  because  I  know  it  will  never 
come  into  effect  so  far  as  it  relates  to  my  work 
on  the  paper.' 

"  Finding  that  I  was  impracticable,  Mr.  Morley 
left  and  concluded  his  arrangement  without 
consultation. 

"  One  month  later  Mr.  Ashton  Dilke  sickened 
with  his  fatal  illness,  and  Mr.  Morley  was 
elected  on  February  24th,  1884,  as  Liberal 
candidate  for  Newcastle-on-Tyne. 


HIS   SECOND   PREMONITION       119 

"  I  remember  that  when  the  news  came  to 
Northumberland  Street,  the  first  remark  which 
Mr.  Thompson  made  was :  '  Well,  Stead's 
presentiment  is  coming  right,  after  all.'  I 
remember  all  through  that  contest,  when  vthe 
issue  was  for  some  time  somewhat  in  doubt, 
feeling  quite  certain  that  if  Mr.  Moiiey  did 
not  get  in  he  would  die,  or  he  would  find  some 
other  constituency.  I  had  no  vision  as  to  the 
success  of  his  candidature  at  Newcastle.  The 
one  thing  certain  was  that  I  was  to  have 
charge  of  the  paper,  and  that  he  was  to  be 
out  of  it. 

"  When  he  was  elected  the  question  came  1 
as  to  what  should  be  done.  The  control  of 
the  paper  passed  almost  entirely  into  my  hands 
at  once,  and  Mr.  Morley  would  have  left 
altogether  on  the  day  mentioned  in  my  vision, 
had  not  Mr.  Thompson  kindly  interfered  to 
secure  me  a  holiday  before  saddling  me  with 
the  sole  responsibility.  Mr.  Morley,  therefore, 
remained  till  midsummer  ;  but  his  connection 
with  the  paper  was  very  slight,  parliamentary 
duties,  as  he  understood  them,  being  incom- 
patible with  close  day-to-day  editing  of  an 
evening  paper.  Here,  again,  it  could  not 
possibly  have  been  said  that  my  premonition 
had  any  share  in  bringing  about  its  own 
realisation.  It  was  not  known  by  Mr.  Ashton 
Dilke's  most  intimate  friends  in  October  that 
he  would  not  be  able  to  face  another  session. 
I  did  not  even  know  he  was  ill,  and  my  vision, 
so  far  from  being  based  on  any  calculation  of 


120  MY  FATHER 

Mr.  Morley's  chances  of  securing  a  seat  in 
Parliament,  was  quite  independent  of  all 
electoral  changes.  My  vision,  my  message,  my 
premonition,  or  whatever  you  please  to  call  it, 
was  strictly  limited  to  one  point,  Mr.  Morley 
only  coming  into  it  indirectly.  I  was  to  have 
charge  of  certain  duties  which  necessitated  his 
disappearance  from  Northumberland  Street. 
Note  also  that  my  message  did  not  say  that  I 
was  to  be  editor  of  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette 
on  Mr.  Morley's  departure,  nor  was  I  ever  in 
strict  title  editor  of  that  paper.  I  edited  it, 
but  Mr.  Yates  Thompson  was  nominally  editor- 
in-chief.  Nor  did  I  ever  admit  I  was  editor 
until  I  was  in  the  dock  at  the  Old  Bailey,  when 
it  would  have  been  cowardly  to  have  seemed 
to  evade  the  responsibility  of  a  position  which  I 
practically  occupied,  although  as  a  matter-of-fact 
the  post  was  never  actually  conferred  upon  me." 

In  addition  to  my  Father  taking  full  command  of 
the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  in  that  year,  1884  was 
likewise  rendered  memorable  by  the  death  of  his 
father.  He  visited  Howden  for  the  last  time  on 
the  occasion  of  his  father's  funeral.  Always  deeply 
sensitive  to  the  associations  of  affection  he  could 
never  afterwards  face  the  thought  of  reopening 
that  chapter  of  tender  memories,  when  those  who 
had  made  its  happiness  were  gone  from  his  sight. 

Speaking  of  the  "stress  and  strain  of  London 
life,"  he  contrasted  it  with  the  "  secluded 
domesticities  of  Darlington"  upon  which  it  had 
made  inevitable  inroads.  "  But,"  he  added  "  at 


HIS   SECOND   PREMONITION       121 

Wimbledon,  as  at  Darlington,  we  kept  the  children 
with  us.  Two  others  were  born  there,  who  went 
to  day  schools  in  later  years,  but  the  elder  ones 
were  educated  under  our  own  roof.  We  were 
exceptionally  fortunate  in  obtaining  the  services  of 
an  admirable  governess  in  Miss  Isabel  Adams,  to 
whom  after  their  mother,  my  children  owe  most  of 
the  training  and  discipline  which  has  stood  them  in 
good  stead  in  after  life.  She  was  a  second  mother 
to  the  boys,  and  we  gratefully  acknowledge  the 
incalculable  debt  which  we  owe  to  her  unfailing 
kindness,  her  unswerving  rectitude,  and  her  patient 
perseverance  in  her  educational  duties.  After  her 
came  Mr.  Underbill,  a  young  man  of  considerable 
literary  promise ;  and  then  came  Dr.  Borns,  a 
German  tutor,  whose  attainments  were  as  great  as 
his  modesty ;  who  was  then  and  has  been  ever 
since,  not  only  a  companion  but  a  counsellor  and  a 
friend" 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  MAIDEN  TRIBUTE 

"The  call  of  duty  is  the  call  of  God.  Whenever  a  call  comes 
home  to  your  heart  to  do  some  unselfish  thing  for  your  sister  or 
brother,  be  they  never  so  poor  and  miserable  and  vile,  remember 
that  that  call  comes  to  you  from  the  great  heart  of  God,  and  if  you 
turn  a  deaf  ear  you  deny  Him  and  are  none  of  His." — W.  T. 
STEAD.  Speech  in  Hyde  Park,  1885. 

"  Oh,  the  agony  of  the  thing  !  You  know  what  a  woman  I  am 
in  these  things,  and  therefore  can  judge  how  I  suffer. — 
W.  T.  STEAD.  In  a  private  letter. 

As  1885  dawned  was  there  any  foreshadowing  of 
that  great  crusade  which  he  was  this  year  to  wage 
against  one  of  the  greatest  blots  on  his  loved  land  ? 
He  gives  no  hint  of  any  premonition  in  his  writings. 
But  in  reading  over  his  articles  and  letters  about, 
and  during,  this  time  of  strain  and  stress,  we  realize 
how  when  the  order  was  given  to  set  out,  though 
the  way  seemed  dark  and  terrible,  there  was  no 
doubt  in  his  mind  as  to  his  duty.  We  see  how 
truly  he  felt  the  presence  of  the  unseen  forces 
guiding  and  directing  him  past  all  pitfalls  and 
dangers  to  emerge  scathless  at  last  full  of  the  joy  of 
revelation  that  verily  he  had  been  "  anointed  with 
the  oil  of  gladness  above  his  fellows," 

•'128     ' 


=-  - 


ftti^!&&«^  t*  -M^i 

,< n  Sra^Jw^?. ,;>^vi^  a«V- 


SCENE  OUTSIDE  THE  "PALL  MALL  GAZETTE"  OFFICES  DURING  THK 
MAIDEN  TRIBUTE  AGITATION,  1885. 


,   .  , 


THE   MAIDEN   TRIBUTE  123 

The  following  is  a  brief  account  of  this  mighty 
crusade  written  by  him  some  years  later  :— 

"It  is  not  often  that  a  man  can  look  back 
upon  his  conviction  and  sentence  as  a  criminal 
convict  with  pride  and  exultation.  Such  how- 
ever is  my  case  ...  I  was  sent  to  gaol  on 
Nov.  10th,  1885,  and  every  tenth  of  November 
since  then  has  been  as  a  Red-Letter  Day  in  my 
life,  and  will  be  so  until  I  die. 

"  The  night  of  my  conviction — the  first  nights 
—for  I  was  tried  on  two  counts  and  found  guilty 
by  two  separate  juries — remains  indelibly  im- 
pressed upon  my  memory.  The  crowded  Court, 
the  strained  excitement,  the  hushed  suspense, 
the  outburst  of  feeling  when  the  verdict  was 
announced,  all  recur  to  me  as  if  they  had 
occurred  but  yesterday.  It  was  a  great  experi- 
ence and  one  which  I  would  not  have  missed 
for  anything.  Every  subsequent  year  has 
brought  me  fresh  reason  for  gratitude  that  I 
was  so  convicted  and  sent  to  gaol. 

"  The  story  of  how  I  came  to  be  placed  in  the 
dock  and  arraigned  for  committing  one  of  the  very 
crimes  which  I  had  secured  the  passage  of  an  Act 
of  Parliament  to  punish  more  severely,  need  only 
be  told  in  outline  here.  In  the  spring  of  1885 
the  Chamberlain  of  the  City  of  London,  a  vener- 
able old  man  of  seventy-five,  came  to  me  in  great 
distress  and  informed  me  that  owing  to  the  un- 
expected defeat  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  Government 
and  the  confusion  occasioned  by  the  installation 
of  his  successor,  a  Bill  for  strengthening  the  laws 

1  "  Christian  Endeavour  World,"  U.S.A. 


124  MY  FATHER 

for  the  protection  of  girls  and  young  women, 
which  had  been  introduced  into  the  House  of 
Commons  by  the  outgoing  Government,  would 
be  sacrificed.  The  need  for  such  an  amendment 
of  the  law  was  recognised  by  both  political  parties. 
The  Bill  was  based  upon  the  report  of  a  Select 
Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords.  Everyone 
admitted  that  juvenile  prostitution  had  increased 
to  a  terrible  extent.  All  agreed  that  the  law,  as 
it  stood,  was  powerless  to  deal  with  the  evil.  The 
Bill  amending  the  law  had  been  twice  passed 
through  the  House  of  Lords,  but  it  had  always 
been  held  up  in  the  House  of  Commons.  After 
years  of  strenuous  agitation,  and  the  earnest 
prayers  of  all  the  Churches,  they  had  hoped  that 
at  last  they  were  to  obtain  the  much  needed  re- 
form. But  the  change  of  Ministry  had  dashed 
this  hope  to  the  ground.  'All  our  work,'  said 
|  the  Chamberlain,  '  will  be  wasted  unless  you  can 
rouse  up  public  opinion  and  compel  the  new 
Government  to  take  up  the  Bill  and  pass  it  into 
law.' 

"  Mrs.  Josephine  Butler  came  and  added  her 
intreaties  to  those  of  Mr.  Scott,  the  City  Cham- 
berlain. I  then  said  I  would  look  into  the  matter 
and  see  what  could  be  done. 

"  The  Bill  was  a  comprehensive  measure.  It 
aimed  not  merely  at  the  corruption  of  minors  but 
also  at  the  White  Slave  Traffic — the  export  of 
English  girls  to  purchasers  in  the  vice  markets 
abroad.  The  law  as  it  stood  declared  that  any 
child  of  thirteen  years  of  age  was  legally  com- 
petent to  consent  to  her  own  seduction.  It  also 


THE   MAIDEN   TRIBUTE 

refused  to  allow  little  girls  under  eight  to  give 
evidence  against  the  monsters  who  had  outraged 
them,  on  the  ground  that  the  victims  were  too 
young  to  understand  the  nature  of  an  oath.  The 
law  against  abduction  was  criminally  lax,  and 
provided  no  adequate  punishment  of  those  who 
trafficked  in  womanhood.  What  the  reformers 
wanted  was  to  raise  the  age  of  consent  from 
thirteen  to  sixteen,  to  allow  children  under  eight 
to  give  evidence  as  to  their  assailants,  and  to 
stiffen  the  law  against  abduction  and  the  traffic  in 
vice.  Like  everyone  else,  I  knew  that  the  law 
ought  to  be  amended,  but  also  like  everyone  else, 
I  knew  that  it  had  not  the  remotest  chance  of 
being  amended  as  things  stood. 

"  '  I  do  not  know  if  you  can  do  it,'  said  the  old 
Chamberlain,  '  but  if  you  cannot  then  we  are 
beaten.  No  one  else  will  help  us.  You  might 
be  able  to  force  the  Bill  through.  Will  you 
try?' 

"  I,  naturally,  wanted  to  try,  but  every  instinct ... 
of  prudence  and  self-preservation  restrained  me.  Jj  . 
The  subject  was  tabooed  by  the  Press.  The  very 
horror  of  the  crime  was  the  chief  secret  of  its 
persistence.  The  task  was  almost  hopeless.  No 
ordinary  means  could  overcome  the  obstacles 
which  were  presented  by  the  political  situation. 
Through  a  personal  friend  who  was  a  member  of 
the  new  Cabinet  I  took  soundings  as  to  the 
chance  of  getting  the  Bill  passed.  The  answer  I 
received  was  decisive  and  emphatic :  *  The  new 
Ministry  will  not  attempt  any  legislation  what- 
ever. It  is  utterly  impossible  to  make  an 


126  MY   FATHER 

exception  in  favour  of  this  Bill.     We  are  very 
sorry,  but  nothing  can  be  done  this  session.' 

"  With  such  a  non  possumus  staring  me  in  the 
face,  I,  nevertheless,  risked  everything  upon  that 
forlorn  hope.  With  the  aid  of  a  few  faithful 
friends,  I  went  disguised  into  the  lowest  haunts 
of  criminal  vice  and  obtained  only  too  ample 
proof  of  the  reality  and  extent  of  the  evils  com- 
plained of.  I  then  published  the  Report  of  the 
Secret  Commission  of  Enquiry  into  the  Criminal 
Vice  of  London  under  the  title  of  '  The  Maiden 
Tribute  of  Modern  Babylon,'  in  the  Pall  Mall 
Gazette,  beginning  on  the  sixth  of  July  and 
closing  its  publication  on  the  twelfth.  The 
sensation  which  these  articles  produced  was 
instantaneous  and  world-wide.  They  set  London 
and  the  whole  country  in  a  blaze  of  indignation. 
An  influential  committee,  consisting  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  Bishop  of  London, 
Cardinal  Manning,  Mr.  John  Morley,  and  Sir 
Robert  Reid,  Q.C.,  investigated  the  accuracy  of 
my  statements. 

"  The  Ministry  capitulated  to  the  storm  of 
popular  passion.  The  Bill  which  they  had 
abandoned  as  hopeless,  they  revived  and 
strengthened  and  passed  into  law  with  the 
utmost  celerity  and  dispatch.  It  was  one  of  the 
\  greatest  achievements  which  any  journalist  single- 
handed  had  ever  accomplished  in  the  coercion  of 
an  unwilling  legislature  and  a  reluctant  Ministry. 

"  After  the  law  had  received  the  Royal  Assent 
it  was  discovered  that  in  one  of  the  first — nay  the 
very  first  experiment  which  I  had  made  to  verify 


THE   MAIDEN   TRIBUTE  127 

at  first  hand  the  truth  of  the  statement  that 
British  mothers  were  willing  to  sell  the  virginity 
of  their  girls  for  a  five-pound  note  to  the  procurers 
of  vice,  I  had  omitted  to  take  the  necessary 
precautions  to  prove  legally  the  fact.  My  only 
excuse  was  that  I  was  utterly  inexperienced,  that 
I  had  of  necessity  to  rely  upon  the  assistance  of 
people  whose  character  made  them  very  bad 
witnesses,  and  that  from  the  first  I  had  refused  to 
do  anything  to  incriminate  individuals.  I  was  an 
investigator  exposing  a  vast  system  of  organised 
crimes.  I  could  not  bring  myself  to  be  a 
detective  worming  myself  into  the  confidence  of 
criminals  in  order  to  betray  their  trust  and  to 
secure  their  punishment.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the 
fact  was  that  the  first  child  of  thirteen  procured 
for  me  in  my  disguise  as  an  immoral  man  in 
return  for  the  usual  payment  to  the  procuress 
and  to  the  mother,  was  handed  to  me  without 
the  consent  of  the  father,  and  without  any  written 
evidence  as  to  the  payment  to  the  mother.  The 
mother,  of  course,  as  soon  as  the  hue  and  cry  was 
raised,  protested  that  she  had  only  let  her 
daughter  go  to  be  a  servant  girl.  The  father 
quite  truly  swore  that  he  never  consented  for  her 
to  go  at  all.  The  opportunity  was  tempting. 
The  opponents  of  the  reform  which  the  Pall  Mall 
Gazette  had  forced  upon  the  Government  and 
the  House  of  Commons,  exulted  over  the  chance 
which  this  case  afforded  them  of  dealing  what 
they  believed  would  be  a  fatal  blow  to  the  man 
who  had  defeated  them. 

"So    the    very    legal    officer,    the    Attorney- 


128  MY   FATHER 

General,  who  had  been  compelled  by  one  agita- 
tion to  carry  the  amending  Bill  through  the 
House  of  Commons,  prosecuted  me  and  three 
or  four  of  my  comrades  on  the  charge  of  abduct- 
ing the  girl  in  question. 

"  The  trial  created  almost  as  great  a  sensation 
as  the  original  publications.  We  were  several 
days  in  the  Police  Court,  and  then  we  were  sent 
to  the  Old  Bailey  for  trial. 

"A  public  defence  fund  of  six  thousand 
pounds  was  raised.  Sir  Charles  Russell,  after- 
wards Lord  Chief  Justice,  Mr.  Henry  Matthews, 
afterwards  Home  Secretary,  and  other  leading 
counsel  were  retained  for  the  defence  of  my 
comrades.  I  defended  myself.  ....  The  trial 
placed  in  the  full  light  of  day  the  facts  which 
the  majority  of  newspapers  had  carefully  shrouded 
in  obscurity.  On  the  main  question  our  evi- 
dence was  overwhelming.  The  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  the  Bishop  of  London,  Cardinal 
Manning,  Mr.  John  Morley,  Mr.  Arthur  Balfour, 
were  among  my  witnesses  subpoenaed  to  prove 
the  purity  of  my  motives. 

"On  the  second  hand,  the  existence  of  the 
^  evil,  its  extent,  the  hopelessness  of  any  reform, 
and  the  fact  that  almost  single-handed  I  had 
forced  the  legislature  to  pass  the  Bill,  were  not 
only  proved  but  admitted  to  be  true  by  the 
prosecution. 

"  All  that  the  enemy  could  hope  to  secure  by 
way  of  consolation,  was  a  verdict  against  the 
defendants  for  failing  to  produce  evidence  to 
prove  the  consent  of  the  parents  to  the  abduction 


THE   MAIDEN    TRIBUTE  129 

of  their  daughter.  It  was  admitted  that  the 
child  had  never  been  better  cared  for  in  her  life. 
It  was  proved  that  the  only  reason  why  she  had 
not  been  returned  to  her  mother,  was  the  belief, 
which  the  police  shared,  that  if  she  went  back 
she  would  be  sold  in  deadly  earnest  next  time. 
But  the  consent  of  the  father  hajd_  never  been  j 
obtained,  and  the  judge  ruled  that  this  was  fatal 
to  our  defence  and  that  the  jury  had  no  option 
but  to  return  a  verdict  of  guilty.  But  if  I  had 
but  persisted  in  asking  one  question,  this  fatal  j 
fault  would  have  been  wiped  out.  I  wanted  to 
ask  the  mother  for  her  marriage  lines.  Sir 
Charles  Russell,  who  was  leading  counsel  on  our 
side,  protested  against  a  question  that  imputed 
immorality  to  any  woman,  no  matter  how 
degraded  she  might  be,  unless  there  was  solid 
basis  to  go  upon.  I  said  that  I  had  nothing  to  go 
upon  beyond  the  fact  that  she  was  admittedly  a 
drunken  woman,  who  in  my  belief  had  sold  her 
own  daughter  into  prostitution.  "That,"  said 
the  great  barrister,  "  is  not  enough.  I  will  never 
be  a  party  to  such  licence  of  cross-examination." 
1  gladly  concurred,  for  I  had  frequently  protested 
against  the  way  in  which  women  were  insulted 
in  the  witness-box  by  cross-examining  counsel. 
But  months  after  I  had  served  my  sentence  and  ? 
had  come  out  of  gaol,  it  was  discovered  at 
Somerset  House  that  the  child  had  been  born 
out  of  wedlock,  and  that  the  nominal  father  had 
no  legal  rights  over  the  girl  who  bore  his  name,  j 
It  was  then  too  late,  and  I  have  never  ceased 
to  be  grateful  that  the  fact  was  not  discovered 

K 


130  MY   FATHER 

till  afterwards.  If  I  had  asked  that  question  I 
should  probably  have  been  acquitted  and  so 
have  lost  that  experience  in  prison  which  was 
one  of  the  most  valuable  lessons  of  my 
life.  .  .  . 

"  The  trial  lasted  several  days.  The  Court 
was  crowded,  and  had  been  so  from  start  to 
finish.  .  .  .  The  break-down  in  the  witness-box 
of  one  of  our  witnesses,  who  frankly  declared 
that  she  would  perjure  herself  rather  than  betray 
her  companions,  left  the  issue  in  little  doubt. 
The  Judge  had  spent  the  whole  day  summing 
up  against  us.  His  animus  was  undisguised. 
He  constructed  a  series  of  questions,  to  which 
the  jury  would  have  to  answer  yes  or  no,  with 
such  care  that  it  was  simply  impossible  for  them 
to  do  other  than  return  the  verdict  of  guilty. 
But  so  signal  had  been  the  vindication  of  the 
motives  and  the  method  of  the  defendants,  that 
there  were  many  who  believed  that  the  jury, 
despite  the  charge  of  the  Judge,  would  persist 
in  returning  a  verdict  of  not  guilty. 

"I  had  no  such  expectations.  I  knew  that 
I  should  be  convicted.  I  knew  also  that  I 
should  have  to  spend  two  months  in  gaol.  My 
friends  rallied  me  about  the  absurdity  of  my 
forecast.  It  was  one  of  the  intuitions  which 
enable  us  sometimes  to  foresee  what  is  about 
to  happen." 

It  was  in  fact  another  of  those  strange  fore- 
shadowings  of  the  future  of  which  two  have  already 
been  recorded.  It  was  as  definite  and  unmistakable 


THE   MAIDEN   TRIBUTE  131 

as  either  of  the  others.     Comparing  it  afterwards 
with  them,  my  Father  wrote  :— 

"  It  was  even  more  remarkable  and  entirely 
precluded  any  possibility  of  my  premonition 
having  any  influence  whatever  in  bringing  about 
its  realisation.  .  .  When  the  trial  was  drawing 
to  a  close,  conviction  being  certain,  the  question 
was  naturally  discussed  what  the  sentence  would 
be.  Many  of  my  friends,  including  those 
actively  engaged  in  the  trial  on  both  sides,  were 
strongly  of  opinion  that  under  the  circumstances 
I  should  only  be  bound  over  in  my  own  recog- 
nisance to  come  up  for  judgment  when  called 
upon.  .  .  The  jury  had  found  me  guilty,  but 
strongly  recommended  me  to  mercy  on  the 
ground,  as  they  said,  that  I  had  been  deceived  by 
my  agent.  .  .  But  I  was  never  a  moment  in 
doubt.  I  knew  I  was  going  to  gaol  from  the 
moment  Rebecca  Jarre tt  broke  down  in  the 
witness-box.  This  may  be  said  to  be  nothing 
extraordinary  ;  but  what  was  extraordinary  was, 
that  I  had  the  most  absolute  conviction  that  I 
was  going  to  gaol  for  two  months.  1  was  told 
by  those  who  considered  themselves  in  a  position 
to  speak  with  authority  that  I  was  perfectly  safe, 
that  1  should  not  be  imprisoned,  and  that  I  should 
make  preparations  to  go  abroad  for  a  holiday  , 
as  soon  as  the  trial  was  over.  To  all  such  repre- 
sentations I  always  replied  by  asserting  with  the 
most  implicit  confidence  that  I  was  certain  to  go 
to  gaol  and  that  my  sentence  would  be  two 
months." 

K  2 


132  MY   FATHER 

"  For  more  than  a  week  the  dock  at  the  Old 
Bailey  had  been  the  centre  of  interest  through- 
out the  whole  country.  The  dock  itself  is  an 
inspiration.  Many  of  the  men  who  have  made 
history,  from  William  Penn  downwards,  have 
faced  hostile  judges  from  that  coign  of  vantage. 
The  well  of  the  Court  was  crowded  with  counsel. 
The  leaders  of  the  Bar  were  there,  and,  on  either 
side,  gathered  the  friends  of  the  opposing  parties. 
The  jury  were  absent  for  a  considerable  time,  and 
the  crowded  Court  buzzed  with  eager  conversa- 
tion as  everybody  canvassed  the  possible  verdict 
with  his  neighbours.  I  think  that  I  was  about 
the  most  unconcerned  person  in  court.  When 
you  know  what  is  going  to  happen  you  do  not 
get  so  excited  as  those  who  are  still  in  suspense. 
In  the  dock  with  me  were  Bramwell  Booth, 
chief  of  the  staff  of  the  Salvation  Army,  and 
another  devoted  member  of  the  Army,  Madame 
Combes,  who  had  rendered  yeoman  service  in 
the  enquiry.  With  them  also  was  an  old  war 
correspondent  of  Greek  descent,  who  had  aided 
me  in  my  excursions  into  regions  where  he  was 
much  more  familiar  than  myself.  The  remain- 
ing occupants  of  the  dock  were  a  Frenchwoman 
of  infamous  repute,  who  was  convicted  and  died 
in  gaol,  and  a  converted  procuress  who  had 
aided  me  in  exposing  the  traffic  by  which  she 
had  formerly  made  her  livelihood.  Our  friends, 
legal  and  otherwise,  were  crowded  round  the 
dock,  confidently  expressing  their  belief  in  our 
acquittal. 

"Suddenly   there  was  a  thrilling  whisper: — 


THE   MAIDEN  TRIBUTE  133 

'  They  are  coming,  they  are  coming.'  Everyone 
hushed  his  talk.  Those  who  had  seats  sat  down. 
Those  who  crowded  the  corridors  craned  their 
necks  towards  the  jury  box.  The  twelve  good 
men  and  true,  headed  by  their  foreman,  filed  back 
into  the  box.  Then  the  Judge,  in  a  silence  pro- 
found as  death,  asked  if  they  had  agreed  upon 
their  verdict.  '  We  have,'  said  the  foreman. 
Everyone  held  his  breath  and  waited  to  hear  the 
next  fateful  words.  It  was  a  verdict  of  *  Not 
Guilty '  against  Bramwell  Booth  and  Madame 
Combes.  Of  '  Guilty '  against  the  Frenchwoman 
and  the  ex-procuress,  '  Guilty '  also  against  the 
Greek  war  correspondent,  and  '  Guilty  '  against 
me.  But  in  my  case  the  jury  added  an  extra- 
ordinary rider.  They  found  me  guilty  of  being 
deceived  by  my  agents.  They  recommended  me 
to  mercy,  and  they  wished  to  put  on  record  their 
high  appreciation  of  the  services  I  had  rendered 
the  nation  by  securing  the  passage  of  a  much 
needed  law  for  tJie  protection  of  young  girls. 

"  When  the  last  word  was  spoken  the  tension 
was  relaxed  and  the  whole  court  hummed  with 
excitement.  I  never  can  forget  looking  down 
from  the  dock  upon  the  crowd  below.  Some 
of  my  friends  were  very  angry.  But  I  could  not 
for  the  life  of  me  see  how  the  jury  could  have 
done  otherwise.  The  foreman  of  the  jury  called 
upon  my  wife  and  explained,  with  tears  in  his 
eyes,  how  utterly  impossible  he  had  found  it  to 
answer  the  Judge's  questions  in  any  other  way. 
'Tell  him,'  I  wrote  to  my  wife  from  gaol, 
'Tell  him  not  to  grieve.  If  I  had  been  in 


134  MY   FATHER 

his  place  I  should  have  done  the  same  as  he 
did: 

"  Next  day  was  Lord  Mayor's  Day,  and  I 
spent  hours  walking  up  and  down  the  streets 
through  the  thousands  who  turned  out  to  see 
London's  annual  pageant.  I  was  going  to  be 
secluded  from  my  fellow  creatures  for  some 
months.  I  wanted  to  take  my  fill  of  the 
crowd  before  I  returned  to  my  cell. 

"  The  next  day  the  second  charge  springing 
out  of  the  same  incident  was  tried  before  a 
second  jury.  I  took  no  part  in  the  proceedings, 
and  when  the  inevitable  verdict  came  and  we 
stood  up  for  sentence,  the  Judge  sentenced  me 
to  three  months'  imprisonment.  I  was  so 
certain  that  I  was  going  to  prison  for  two 
months  that  I  with  difficulty  restrained  myself 
from  saying  :  '  My  Lord,  have  you  'not  made 
a  mistake?  It  ought  to  be  two  months.'  I 
fortunately  restrained  myself.  When  I  got 
into  my  cell  I  found  that  the  sentence  ran 
from  the  opening  of  the  Session,  and  that  the 
precise  period  of  detention  I  had  to  undergo 
was  two  months  and  seven  days.  The  Judge 
had  come  as  near  verifying  my  prediction  as  it 
was  possible  for  him  to  do.1 

"  When  the  sentence  was  pronounced,  all  our 
friends  crowded  round  us  cheering  us  with  all 
manner  of  friendly  assurances,  and  not  less  friendly 
imprecations  on  the  prosecution.  My  dear  wife, 

1  Had  he  actually  been  sentenced  to  two  months'  imprisonment 
he  could  only  have  been  detained  in  prison  one  month  and  seven 
days.  Hence  the  curious  accuracy  of  his  prevision. 


THE   MAIDEN   TRIBUTE  135 

who  had  displayed  the  most  splendid  courage 
through  it  all,  bade  me  good-bye,  and  then  the 
gaoler  led  us  down  dark  corridors  into  Newgate. 
The  contrast  between  the  dark  crowded  court 
and  the  cold  silent  cell  was  very  great.  Another 
hour  passed  and  then  we  were  packed  into  the 
prison  van  and  driven  through  the  streets  of 
London  to  Coldbath-in-the-Fields  prison." 

When  he  was  standing  for  his  trial  at  the  Old 
Bailey,  a  poor  outcast  girl  who  was  dying  of  disease 
in  a  hospital,  asked  that  the  only  shilling  which  she 
possessed  in  the  world  might  be  given  to  the  fund 
which  was  being  raised  for  the  defence.  It  was 
handed  to  him  when  he  came  out  of  gaol  with, 
written  on  its  paper  cover :  "  Dying  girl  in  hospital 
gives  her  last  shilling."  He  carried  it  about  with 
him  always,  never  allowing  it  to  pass  out  of  his 
possession  for  a  single  day,  and  he  had  it  with  him 
to  the  end. 

He  wrote  of  it  as  "  The  shilling  which  I  most 
prize  of  all  the  pieces  of  money  in  my  possession." 


CHAPTER  XI 

IN    GAOL 

"  Be  a  Christ." 

"  Never  tell  anyone  any  more  to  be  a  Christian.     Always  tell 
them  to  be  a  Christ." — Message  received  in  Hollo  way  Gaol. 
"  These  words  contain  the  essence  of  the  Christian  religion." 

THE  news  of  his  conviction  and  sentence  struck 
like  setting  a  match  to  gunpowder.  The  effect 
was  instantaneous,  explosive,  seeming  to  liberate 
the  pent-up  horror  that  had  gripped  the  whole 
country,  while  the  deadly  drama  was  slowly 
being  unfolded  at  the  Old  Bailey,  day  by  day. 
Avalanches  of  telegrams  poured  in  upon  Queen 
Victoria,  the  Prime  Minister  and  the  Home 
Office.  Protests  and  petitions  were  showered 
upon  the  Government.  An  urgent  petition  from 
Howden-on-Tyne,  "  praying  for  a  reduction  in  the 
sentence,"  sped  on  its  way  to  the  Home  Secretary 
by  the  night  mail,  on  the  very  day  of  his  con- 
viction. The  news  had  reached  Newcastle  at  five 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  good  people  of 
the  village  of  his  boyhood  lost  no  time  in  voicing 
their  sentiments.  The  petition  was  signed  by 

130 


FATHER  AS  A  CRIMINAL  CONVICT,  COLDBATH-IN-THE-FJELDS 

PRISON. 
November  10th.  1885. 


IN   GAOL 

every  minister  of  religion  in  Howden,  and  headed 
by  the  vicar  of  the  Parish,  the  Rev.  John  Hughes. 
Meanwhile,  in  prison,  direct  spiritual  solace  came 
to  him  quickly  during  the  first  twenty-four  hours, 
while  he  was  still  treated  as  an  ordinary  criminal 
convict,  sleeping  on  a  plank  bed  and  picking  oakum. 
The  spirit  of  the  Master  visited  him  indeed  in  the 
warm  love  of  his  friends.  Cardinal  Manning,  as 
ever,  was  a  tower  of  strength.  He  wrote  at  once: 

"Nov.  llth,  1885. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  STEAD, 

'All  things  work  together  for  good  to  them 
that  love  God.'  You  have  served  Him  with  a 
single  eye.  And  '  The  work  has  been  done,'  as 
you  wrote  on  the  sentence.  No  sentence  can 
undo  it.  You  quoted  my  words  in  the  North. 
You  have  now  the  crown  upon  your  work — that 
is,  to  suffer  for  errors  of  judgment  and  a  literal 
breach  of  the  law  which  left  the  moral  life  of 
England  almost  without  defence.  I  have  so 
strongly  felt  this,  and  I  have  so  clearly  seen 
through  the  animosities  against  you,  that  I 
believe  what  has  now  befallen  you  will  work 
some  unforeseen  and  greater  good  for  your  con- 
solation. Whatsoever  it  may  be  in  my  power 
to  do  shall  be  done.  May  God  give  you  His 
Peace.  Believe  me  always  yours  very  faithfully, 
HENRY  E.  Card.  Archp." 

From  the  pulpit,  the  voice  of  Canon  Wilberforce 
gave  expression  to  the  indignation  of  noble  man- 
hood. He  likened  the  "  scathing  exposure  of  moral 
leprosy,"  in  the  articles  in  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette,  to 


138  MY   FATHER 

the  law  of  Moses,  which  held  that  "when  leprosy 
in  all  its  hideous  defilement  was  full  upon  the 
sufferer's  body  he  was  no  longer  ceremonially 
unclean,  for  the  reason  that  in  that  stage  the  disease 
was  less  contagious,  partly  because  the  utter 
loathsomeness  of  the  sight  would  in  itself  discourage 
contact ;  and  he  found  in  the  storm  of  indignation 
and  vituperation  which  had  burst  upon  the  Pall 
Mall  Gazette  from  certain  quarters  "  an  additional 
proof  that  it  is  characteristic  of  an  age  of  peculiar 
self-indulgence,  to  deprecate  plain  speaking  about 
plain  sins,  to  endure  unblushingly  the  visible 
manifestation  of  evil,  and  prudishly  to  hide  the 
head  when  such  evils  are  denounced  from  pulpit, 
press,  or  platform,  by  their  proper  names."  He 
declared  that  "the  majority  of  the  violent  abuse 
which  has  been  showered  upon  the  head  of  the 
revealer  of  the  '  Apocalypse  of  Evil '  had  come 
from  the  frivolous,  the  worldly,  the  self-pleasing, 
who  have  so  exhausted  their  vocabulary  in  abuse  of 
the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  that  they  appear  not  to  have 
a  curse  to  spare  for  the  defilers  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
the  child  torturers,  the  incarnate  fiends  who  have 
perpetrated  the  abominations  which  the  Pall  Mall 
Gazette  has  exposed."  .  .  Archdeacon  Wilberforce, 
Dec.,  J885. 

Meanwhile  it  was  with  my  Father  in  Hollo  way 
Gaol  as  with  Madame  Guyon,  the  famous  French 
mystic  of  the  seventeenth  century,  of  whom  it  was 
written  that  on  her  imprisonment  on  a  charge  of 
heresy : — "  God  was  pleased  to  give  her  not  only 
entire  resignation,  but  a  triumphant  and  joyful  peace." 


IN   GAOL  139 

Like  Madame  Guyon,  too,  this  feeling  of  peace 
and  high  and  supreme  confidence  in  the  loving 
wisdom  of  God,  sustained  him  all  through  the  long 
weeks  of  his  incarceration.  He  wrote  to  Dr. 
Clifford :  "I  am  full  of  joy  as  to  the  present  and 
of  hope  and  confidence  as  to  the  future."  And  at 
Christmas,  when  he  "knew  what  it  meant,"  he 
wrote  on  the  cards  which  he  sent  from  gaol : 
"  God,  even  my  God,  hath  anointed  me  with  the 
oil  of  gladness  above  my  fellows."  It  seemed 
indeed,  as  Hugh  Price  Hughes  said  of  him,  that  he 
was  "  animated  in  some  degree  with  the  sacred 
fire  of  the  old  prophets." 

But  the  deepest  note  is  sounded  in  his  letter  to 
his  sister  on  Christmas  Eve.  It  was  headed 
"  Christmas  letter  to  be  read  to  the  family."  The 
following  is  an  extract  from  this  letter  :— 

"If  any  of  you  imagine  that  I,  being  a 
prisoner,  am  needing  consolation  and  that  you 
ought  to  address  me  at  this  Xmas-tide  in  accents 
of  crape,  don't.  .  .  .  '  W  eep  not  for  me  though 
you  know  I  am  here ' — a  free  rendering  of  an  old 
hymn — is  my  admonition  to  you.  But  rather 
rejoice,  yea,  exceedingly  rejoice.  For  I  am  here 
in  the  pleasantest  little  room  imaginable,  with  a 
snug  arm-chair  and  a  blazing  fire,  and  the  walls 
all  gay  with  Christmas  cards  and  evergreens,  and 
the  cupboard  full  of  Christmas  cheer ;  and  what  is 
far  more,  my  heart  full  of  joy  and  peace  and 
good- will  to  all  men,  including  Mr.  Justice 
Lopes  and  all  the  rest. 

"  It  is  true  now  and  then  I  have  squirms.  The 


MY   FATHER 

other  day  when  we  all  had  to  sing  in  the  gaol 
chapel,  '  Hark  !  the  herald  angels  sing  '  it  was  as 
if  a  dead  hand  from  out  the  past  gripped  my 
heart,  and  my  eyes  filled  with  tears,  and  through 
the  tears  I  saw  not  the  close-cropped  yellow- 
jacketed  congregation  below,  but  a  yard  full  of 
people  with  fiddles  and  hymn  books  and  out  of 
a  bedroom  window  up  above,  peered  out  faces 
that  were  curiously  like  yours  and  mine,  and  1 
heard  the  fiddles  and  the  singing  of  long  ago, 
and  then  away  tramped  the  little  crowd  out  into 
the  darkness  of  the  Christmas  morning,  and  the 
faces  at  the  window  disappeared,  and  then  the 
hot  tears  dropped  heavy  on  the  floor,  and  there  I 
was  with  my  fellow-comrades  singing  as  best  I 
could  for  the  sobbing  of  my  heart : — 

Hark  !  the  herald  angels  sing, 
Glory  to  the  newborn  King. 

The  old  tune  and  the  old  words,  but  ah,  the  old 
voices  were  no  more,  nor  the  fiddles,  nor  all  the 
sacred  past.  And  this  morning,  too,  when  I 
awoke  at  three  and  remembered  it  was  father's 
birthday,  there  was  a  great  spasm  as  of  pain. 
Dear  man,  how  he  used  to  meet  me  always  at 
the  station,  and  wake  us  in  the  morning,  and 
how  he  was  in  all  things  '  Our  Father '  to  us, 
enabling  us  to  understaiid  what  God  is.  And 
all  the  sad,  sweet  memories  of  the  last  time 
when  I  bade  him  good-bye  for  ever  and  helped 
to  undress  him  and  put  him  to  bed  and  saw  him 
afterwards  no  more.  Oh,  my  God  !  my  God  !  it 
was  almost  more  than  I  could  bear. 


IN   GAOL  141 

"  But  it  passed,  and  then  came  the  proud 
consolation  that  there  are  more  people  who 
know  and  love  and  try  to  imitate  father  to-day 
because  his  eldest  son  is  in  gaol,  than  ever  before 
since  father  began  to  live. 

"'That  good  man,  Stead,'  that  Waugh  put 
upon  his  kind  little  extravagant  eulogy  of  me, 
refers  properly,  not  to  me,  but  to  father.  He 
was  a  good  man,  I  am  not,  never  was,  and,  I 
fear,  never  will  be.  I  often  feel  as  if  I  were  far 
worse  than  any  of  the  other  convicts.  They  had 
not  such  a  home  as  ours,  such  a  father  and  such 
a  mother. 

"  And  now  I  must  wish  you  all  a  merry 
Christmas,  and  a  happy  and  useful  New  Year. 
I  enclose  you  my  Christmas  card,  got  up  in  a 
hurry  with  the  existing  materials.  Nothing  new 
in  it  but  a  text,  an  edited  text,  the  appropriate- 
ness of  which  few  will  understand,  but  which  I 
know  to  be  the  right  text. 

"But  it  is  a  true  text,  and  therefore  appro- 
priate. It  came  into  my  mind  very  forcibly  a 
fortnight  since,  and  I  will  have  that  and  no 
other. 

"  I  have  indeed  had  a  very  happy  and  joyous 
time.  I  am  sorry  about  Jarrett  and  Heywood 
Smith,  and  I  also  sometimes  get  bothered  about 
money.  '  My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee,'  I 
interpret  too  often  as  if  it  had  an  addendum, 
except  so  far  as  cash  is  concerned,  in  which  my 
faith  gets  weak. 

"  With  that  exception,  I  have  great  serenity 
of  soul.  I  spend  my  time  in  working.  I  have 


142  MY   FATHER 

written  all  the  leaders  but  one  since  I  came  here, 
and  several  of  the  reviews.  I  have  written  an 
article  on  '  Government  by  Journalism.' 

"  When  I  have  my  hour's  walk  I  perambulate 
the  infirmary  grounds  round  and  round  like  a 
horse  in  a  threshing  machine,  seeing  apocalyptic 
visions  of  a  new  Earth,  in  which  the  only  thing 
I  see  quite  distinctly  is  that  I  am  called  to  play 
a  great  part  and  then  get  killed  at  the  end  of  it 
all.  How,  what,  where,  I  don't  know.  I  think 
I  wrote  you,  did  1  not  ?  about  my  idea  of  found- 
ing a  Secular  Salvation  Army  that  will  consist 
of  all  who  are  willing  to  bestir  themselves  and 
take  trouble  for  England's  sake,  with  my  news- 
paper as  its  war  cry  and  myself  as  its  General. 
It  is  a  great  idea.  It  links  the  church  idea  on  to 
the  journal  and  combines  both  for  saving  the 
world  on  its  secular  side.  This  is  all  written  out 
full  in  my  '  Government  by  Journalism.' 

"  What  I  have  to  do  when  I  come  out  I  do 
not  know.  Thompson  has  effectually  gagged 
the  P.  M.  6r.  by  taking  contracts  for  advertise- 
ments on  the  understanding  that  there  are  to  be 
no  more  'virgins'  in  the  paper.  It  has  to  be 
like  other  papers. 

"  1  have  a  feeling  as  if  I  shall  spend  Sunday 
nights  in  preaching,  as  a  kind  of  itinerant  apostle 
of  the  new  faith,  which,  after  all,  is  about  the 
oldest  there  is. 

"  Do  you  know  what  I  think  Jesus  Christ 
would  do  if  He  came  now  ?  He  would  go  to 
church  and  chapel  ever  so  many  times  and 
listen,  and  no  one  would  speak  to  Him.  He 


t 


IN   GAOL  143 

would  look  to  see  who  sat  round  Him  and  He 
would  see  no  ragged  people,  no  thieves,  no 
harlots,  only  respectable  people.  And  He  would 
hear  all  these  respectable  people  singing  hymns 
to  Christ,  and  giving  all  the  glory  to  Christ, 
and  then  after  standing  it  a  long  time,  Jesus 
would  stand  up  some  day  in  the  middle  of 
the  church  and  just  say  two  words,  "  DAMN 
CHRIST"!  and  then  He  would  go  out  and  go 
down  some  slum  and  put  His  arms  round  the 
neck  of  some  poor  lost  orphan  girl,  who  was 
having  a  bitter  cry,  and  say  4  Come  unto  Me,  all 
ye  that  are  weary  and  heavy-laden,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest.' 

"  And  that  is  true.  And  I  am  going  to  preach 
that  to  everybody  everywhere  'cause  I  think 
Christ  must  be  mortal  sick  and  just  a  little 
mad  at  the  way  people  who  call  themselves  by 
His  name,  go  bowing  and  scraping  and  singing  to 
a  dead  idol,  which  they  call  Christ,  and  all  the  \ 
while  never  say  a  word,  or  give  a  sixpence,  or 
shed  a  tear,  or  take  a  single  step  towards  those 
whom  Christ  left  us  to  take  care  of.  The  hardest 
cross  Christ  has  to  bear  is  the  cross  that  is  made 
of  those  who  call  themselves  His  own  Church. 

"  I  am  not  Christ.  I  am  only  a  harum-scarum 
fellow  who  often  feels  as  if  he  was  worse  than 
anyone.  But  when  I  see  people  getting  up 
petitions  about  me,  and  worrying  themselves 
about  me,  and  writing  and  talking  and  wanting 
to  help  me, — I  say  it  is  very  kind  of  you  good 
people,  and  not,  perhaps  on  the  whole,  wasted, 
because  I  have  got  to  be — thanks  chiefly  to  my 


144  MY   FATHER 

enemies,  who  are  always  your  best  friends — a 
sign  and  symbol  of  a  cause,  and  there  is  reason 
to  hope  that  while  they  petition  and  write  and 
worry  about  me,  it  will  lead  them  to  do  some- 
thing for  the  others  who  really  need  it.  But 
when  it  gets  no  further  and  they  only  talk  and 
petition  for  me,  and  never  visit  a  poor  woman, 
or  help  a  poor  girl,  or  try  by  personal  sacrifice  to 
keep  a  poor  lad  straight,  then  I  feel  wrath  and 
say,  '  Damn  William  Stead,'  for  you  are  making 
an  idol  of  him  and  burning  incense  before  him. 
And  all  the  while,  if  you  had  ever  entered  really, 
into  the  only  spirit  that  makes  William  Stead 
ever  worth  thinking  of,  you  would  say  God  is 
taking  care  of  William  Stead,  let  us  take  care  of 
some  of  those  whom  God  seems  to  have  for- 
gotten. 

"  So  at  least  I  muse  and  dream  and  wonder 
how  soon  I  shall  be  anathematized  where  now  I 
am  lauded  to  the  skies.  Probably  very  soon.  .  . 

"  I  enclose  you  a  very  remarkable  letter  from 
Dr.  Wilkinson,  the  Bishop  of  Truro,  whom  Miss 
Ellice  Hopkins  calls  'that  Saint  of  God.'  In 
reply  to  his  letter  I  wrote  to  him  a  long  letter, 
saying, '  Yes  I  know  1  shall  be  a  great  boss,  bigger 
than  anybody  thinks.  I  told  Liddon  so  two  years 
ago,  and  it  is  coming  more  rapidly  than  seemed 
possible.  I  know  I  always  jump  to  conclusions  ; 
1  never  ponder  ;  when  1  do  I  go  wrong.  I  seldom 
read  the  Bible  regularly.  I  am  a  very  dangerous 
person,  and  I  have  told  God  so  many  a  time,  as 
if  He  did  not  know  that — and  I  have  told  Him 
that  I  would  not  put  so  much  on  one  weak  back 


IN   GAOL 

and  He  goes  on  putting  more  and  more.  And 
I  told  the  Bishop  that  I  knew  what  the  end 
would  be.  That  after  the  work  was  done  which 
my  living  could  do,  I  should  be  killed,  and  my 
killing  would  do  more  good  than  my  life,  and  a 
lot  more." 

The  letter  speaks  for  itself.  Perhaps  the  most 
wonderful  passage  is  a  premonition  of  his  passing  on. 
"  /  knew  what  the  end  would  be.  That  after  the 
work  was  done  which  my  living  could  do,  I  should 
be  killed,  and  my  killing  would  do  more  good  than 
my  life,  and  a  lot  more."  Who  knows,  but  this  is  so  ? 
After  working  and  striving  to  bridge  the  grave  and 
make  death  other  than  death  to  those  around  him, 
comes  this  dramatic  end.  Who  knows,  but  his 
passing  thus  has  opened  many  eyes  to  that  other 
world  where  he  now  lives  and  works,  and  enabled 
more  to  realise  its  nearness  and  reality  ?  It  has 
made  many,  on  life's  journey,  pause  and  think. 

It  was  in  gaol  on  Christmas  morning  that  he 
heard  again  the  voice  as  he  had  heard  it  twice 
before.  This  time  it  did  not  tell  of  future  changes 
in  his  own  life  for  which  he  was  to  prepare.  On 
that  anniversary  of  the  Birth  of  Christ  in  1885  there 
was  given  to  him  clearly  and  distinctly  in  his  cell 
in  Holloway  Gaol,  words  which  were  to  become  as 
watchwords  in  his  life  and  through  him  were  to  be 
passed  on  to  so  many. 

Let  him  tell  of  how  they  came  in  his  own 
words  : — 

"  I  had  been  trying  to  write  a  letter  to  a  poor 

L 


146  MY   FATHER 

girl  who  had  been  rescued.  She  was  finding  the 
new  life  very  dull  and  was  in  danger  of  falling 
back,  and  it  was  suggested  that  if  I  were  to 
write  to  her  it  might  have  some  influence  over 
her  for  good. 

"  I  left  the  letter  unfinished  to  attend  morning 
service,  and  was  looking  down  from  the  organ- 
loft  on  my  six  hundred  fellow-prisoners  when  I 
heard  a  voice  :  '  Why  are  you  telling  that  girl  to 
be  a  Christian  ?  Never  tell  anyone  any  more  to 
be  a  Christian.  Always  tell  them  to  be  a  Christ.' 
1  My  mind  revolted,  and  I  said  : '  What  blasphemy.' 
But  a  voice  went  on  :  '  The  word  Christian  has 
become  a  mere  label  covering  much  of  self  9  little  of 
(  Christ.' 

"  On  Christmas  Eve  I  was  writing  a  letter  to 
my  wife,  to  tell  her  what  my  message  was,  and  I 
was  just  about  writing  this  sentence :  '  And  a 
voice  came  to  me  and  said,  '  Be  a  Christ,'  and  I 
have  not  been  able  to  get  this  voice  out  of  my 
mind.'  In  the  middle  of  the  sentence  I  heard 
the  Christmas  Bells  ringing  and  laid  down  my 
pen  to  listen  to  their  chiming.  When  I  took 
up  my  pen  what  do  you  think  I  found  I  had 
written  ?  '  Be  a  Christ,'  and  I  have  not  been. 
I  had  written  the  truth,  and  I  left  the  sentence 
as  I  found  it. 

"  I  pondered  the  matter  deeply.  I  wrote  to  all 
those  on  whose  judgment  and  spiritual  insight  I 
felt  I  could  rely — to  Cardinal  Manning,  to 
Hugh  Price  Hughes,  to  Josephine  Butler,  to 
Benjamin  Waugh,  and  others.  What  would 
these  spiritually  minded  men  and  women  think 


IN   GAOL  147 

of  it  ?  With  one  exception  all  said  :  '  These 
words  contain  the  essence  of  the  Christian 
Religion.' 

"  On  Boxing  day  there  was  a  '  merry  Christmas 
party'  in  my  cell;  the  children,  then  five  in 
number,  were  there  with  their  mother. 

"  What  romps  we  had  !  blindman's  buff,  puss- 
in-the-corner,  and  all  the  other  merry  Christmas 
games.  Never  was  the  grim  old  prison  a  scene 
of  a  happier  festival." 


L  2 


CHAPTER    XII 

1887  TO  1890.       HIS    FIRST    PEACE   MISSION 

INTO  the  three  years,  from  1886  to  1889,  many 
things  were  crowded,  but  it  is  only  possible  to 
touch  on  a  few  here. 

In  1887  he  took  up  the  famous  Langworthy 
case,  in  which  he  fought  for  the  rights  of 
Mrs.  Langworthy,  and  triumphantly  vindicated 
her. 

But  the  greatest  event  during  this  time  was  his 
first  visit  to  Russia,  doubly  interesting  as  being 
his  first  Peace  Mission,  and  because  it  linked  him 
up  in  a  particular  way  with  that  country,  so  that 
in  after  years  many  Russians  who  had  "passed 
on  "  came  and  talked  with  him  at  Julia's  Bureau. 
After  this  visit  he  wrote  "  The  Truth  about 
Russia,"  in  which  he  brought  into  view  the 
practical  political  situation  of  Russia,  and  showed 
that  Russia  was  a  real  country,  governed  by  real 
people,  with  a  real  desire  for  progress.  And  not, 
as  was  a  rather  general  idea  at  that  time,  a  country 
where  nothing  existed  but  bloodshed  and  Siberia. 


148 


1887—1890  149 

In  his  autobiographical   sketch   he    sums    up   his 
Russian  policy  in  the  following  words :      i 

"All  my  life  long  I  have  been  a  thorough- 
going opponent  of  the  Russophobist  war  spirit 
which  has  plunged  Europe  into  the  Crimean 
War,  and  which  has  repeatedly  brought  war 
both  in  Enrope  and  in  Asia.  By  advocating 
constantly  the  principle  of  the  European 
Concert,  and  demanding  the  enforcement,  if 
need  be,  by  the  armies  and  navies  of  Europe, 
of  the  treaty-guaranteed  rights  of  the  un- 
fortunate Christians  of  the  East,  I  was  always 
more  or  less  at  variance  with  the  orthodox 
Peace  Party,  whose  one  idea  was  non-inter- 
vention and  abstention  from  all  European 
complications.  1  protested  against  this  doctrine 
because  I  believed  it  to  be  an  abdication  of  the 
responsibility  which  we  owed  to  those  for  whose 
good  government  we  had  made  ourselves 
responsible  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris  and  the 
Treaty  of  Berlin ;  and  whenever  the  chronic 
misgovernment  of  Turkey  became  acute  in 
massacres  and  atrocities  I  never  ceased  to  urge 
upon  England  and  upon  the  other  Powers  to 
use  the  overwhelming  strength  which  they 
possessed  for  the  purpose  of  compelling  the 
Turks  to  carry  out  their  treaty  obligations. 

"  My  first  peace  mission  to  the  Continent 
took  place  in  1888,  at  a  time  when  the  popularity 
of  General  Boulanger  seemed  to  threaten 
Europe  with  war.  I  went  to  St.  Petersburg, 
and  was  received  by  the  Emperor  Alexander  III 


150  MY   FATHER 

at  an  interview  which  has  contributed  not  a 
little  to  allay  the  fear  of  an  armed  conflict. 
I  do  not  think  it  is  too  much  to  say  that,  as 
the  result  of  my  conversation,  I  succeeded  in 
establishing  the  true  character  of  Alexander  III 
as  the  peace-keeper  of  Europe.  I  was  laughed 
at  when  I  returned,  but  years  afterwards, 
when  Alexander  III  died,  I  had  the  honour 
of  being  told  by  the  British  Prime  Minister  of 
the  day  that  1  had  been  absolutely  right,  and 
that  he  and  others  who  had  laughed  at  me  had 
been  absolutely  wrong. 

"  The  permanent  danger  to  the  peace  of  Asia, 
and  not  of  Asia  alone,  lies  in  the  antagonism 
between  Russia  and  England.  For  thirty  years 
I  have  constantly  laboured  to  promote  a  better 
understanding  between  the  two  countries.  On 
two  occasions,  at  least,  when  Russia  and 
England  were  on  the  verge  of  war,  my  task 
was  one  of  no  little  difficulty  and  danger  ;  but 
the  long  and  passionate  apostolate  of  peace  has 
at  least  succeeded  in  convincing  all  the  more 
thoughtful  Englishmen  that  the  true  interests 
of  both  countries  is  to  be  found  in  a  good 
understanding  and  friendly  relations." 

The  following  year  (1889)  he  visited  Rome, 
and  had  "the  opportunity  of  enquiring  at  first 
hand  how  far  my  aspirations  were  shared  by  the 
Holy  See."  The  following  paragraph,  taken  from 
an  article  written  by  him  for  the  Universal  Review, 
and  republished  in  his  preface  to  "  The  Pope  and 
the  New  Era,"  under  which  title  he  issued  his 


1887—1890  151 

letters  from  the  Vatican,  gives  an  insight  into  his 
own  religious  ideals : 

"  The  true  religion  is  that  which  makes  most 
men  most  like  Christ.  And  what  is  the  ideal 
which  Christ  translated  into  a  realised  life  ?  For 
practical  purposes  this  :  To  take  trouble  to  do 
good  to  others.  A  simple  formula,  but  the 
rudimentary  and  essential  truth  of  the  whole 
Christian  religion.  To  take  trouble  is  to  sacri- 
fice time.  All  time  is  a  portion  of  life.  To 
lay  down  one's  life  for  the  brethren — which  is 
sometimes  literally  the  duty  of  the  citizen  who 
is  called  to  die  for  his  fellows — is  the  constant 
and  daily  duty  demanded  by  all  the  thousand- 
and-one  practical  sacrifices  which  duty  and 
affection  call  upon  us  to  make  for  men." 

Writing  on  the   impressions   made  on  him  by 
his  visit,  he  says: — l 

"The  chief  conviction  which  was  borne  in 
upon  my  mind,  on  looking  at  the  Papacy  more 
closely,  was  a  sorrowful  sense  of  the  lamentable 
chasm  which  has  yawned  between  the  Church 
and  the  vital  realities  of  modern  life.  But  no 
amount  of  prejudice  can  prevent  my  seeing 
that  there  is  great  good  in  the  Church,  and 
that  there  are  possibilities  in  it  of  much  greater 
good  than  any  which  it  has  yet  realised.  The 
problem  is  how  best  to  develop  the  good  and 
eliminate  the  bad.  Surely  the  solution  is  not 
difficult.  How  can  you  drive  out  the  darkness 
better  than  by  letting  in  the  light  ?  How  can 

1  "The  Pope  and  the  New  Era." 


152  MY   FATHER 

you  keep  the  unfruitful  works  of  empty  cere- 
monial and  idle  services  from  encroaching  upon 
the  time  and  minds  of  the  faithful  than  by 
cultivating  the  fruitful  works  of  philanthropy  ?" 

A  few  months  later,  in  1890,  he  paid  his  first  visit 
to  Ober  Ammergau,  and  realised  how  in  their 
portrayal  of  the  Passion  Play  those  humble  peasants 
were  enabling  all  to  see  and  realise  the  man  Christ 
as  a  man  among  men — without  his  aureole  of 
Divinity — a  human  figure  to  elicit  sympathy ; 
compassion  andlove  ;  "  they  enabled  us  to  realise 
the  story  that  transformed  the  world."  He  learned 
more,  he  said,  of  the  inner  secret  of  the  Catholic 
Church  in  Ober  Ammergau  than  he  had  learned  in 
Rome. 

1 "  There,  condensed  into  eight  hours  and  less, 
is  the  whole  stock-in-trade  of  the  Christian 
Church.  It  was  in  its  effort  to  impress  that 
story  upon  the  heart  of  man  that  there  came  into 
being  all  that  is  distinctively  Roman.  To  teach 
truth  by  symbols,  to  speak  through  the  eye  as 
much  as  the  ear,  to  leave  no  gate  of  approach 
unsummoned  by  the  bearer  of  the  glad  tidings  of 
great  joy,  and,  above  all,  in  so  doing  to  use  every 
human  element  of  pathos,  of  tragedy,  and  of  awe 
that  can  touch  the  heart  or  impress  the  imagina- 
tion— that  was  the  mission  of  the  Church  ;  and  as 
it  got  further  and  further  afield,  and  had  to  deal 
with  rude  and  ruder  barbarians,  the  tendency 
grew  to  print  in  still  larger  capitals.  The  Catholic 

1  "  The  Story  that  transformed  the  World." 


1887—1890  153 

Church,  in  short,  did  for  religion  what  the  new 
journalism  has  done  for  the  Press.  It  has 
sensationalised  in  order  to  get  a  hearing  among 
the  masses." 

This  same  year  he  resigned  the  editorship  of  the 
Pall  Mall  Gazette  and  founded  the  Review  of 
Reviews.  In  the  first  number  he  gives  his  reason 
for  launching  out  on  his  greater  responsibility  in 
the  following  words  : — 

"There  exists  at  this  moment  no  institution 
which  even  aspires  to  be  to  the  English-speaking 
world  what  the  Catholic  Church  in  its  prime 
was  to  the  intelligence  of  Christendom.  To 
call  attention  to  the  need  for  such  an  institution, 
adjusted,  of  course,  to  the  altered  circumstances 
of  the  New  Era,  to  enlist  the  co-operation  of 
all  those  who  will  work  towards  the  creation  of 
some  such  common  centre  for  the  inter-com- 
munication of  ideas,  and  the  universal  diffusion 
of  the  ascertained  results  of  human  experience 
in  a  form  accessible  to  all  men,  are  the  ultimate 
objects  for  which  this  Review  has  been 
established." 

Looking  back  after  twenty-one  years  he  was  able 
to  say,  "Nor  can  anyone  discover  in  these  forty- 
two  volumes  a  page  which  does  not  ring  true  to 
the  keynote  sounded  in  the  first  number  of  the 
Review." 

On  the  first  page  of  the  copy  of  "  The  Pope  and 
the  New  Era  "  on  his  Library  shelf  he  wrote  the 
following  characteristic  words :— 


154  MY   FATHER 

"The  Pope,  if  up  to  date,  ought  to  publish 
the  Review  of  Reviews,  which  is  an  attempt 
to  render  accessible  to  all  the  best  thoughts  to 
be  found  in  the  periodical  literature  of  the  world. 
Before  founding  the  Review  I  went  to  Rome 
to  see  what  chance  there  was  of  the  Pope  under- 
taking the  task.  Finding  there  was  none,  I  did 
it  myself." 

The  following  year  he  founded  the  American 
Review  of  Reviews,  and  the  year  after  the 
Australian  Review  of  Reviews,  "  For  the  avowed 
purpose,"  he  wrote  later,  "of  promoting  the  re- 
union of  the  English-speaking  race  and  of  preach- 
ing the  doctrine  of  the  Imperialism  of  Responsibility 
as  opposed  to  the  Jingoism  of  passion,  prejudice, 
and  pride." 

It  was  during  this  period,  in  1888,  that  he  met 
Madame  Blavatsky.  Writing  of  that  meeting  he 
says : — 

1 "  It  was  in  the  year  1888  that  Madame 
Blavatsky  took  up  her  abode  in  London.  Madam 
Novikoff  was  charmed  by  her  powerful  intellect, 
which  commanded  her  homage  altogether  apart 
from  her  pretension  to  have  explored  with  steady 
foot  the  bewildering  mazes  of  the  occult  world. 
She  was,  besides,  a  great  Russian  patriot. 

"  Madam  NovikofF  wrote  to  me  one  day  :— 
*  I  made  Madame  Blavatsky  translate  the  enclosed 
letter  for  you  as  I  thought  it  so  very  interesting. 
Don't  you  think  so  ?     By  the  bye,  she  is  dying 
to  see   you ;   so,  unless   you  commit  a  murder, 

1  The  M.P.  for  Russia. 


1887—1880  155 

shall   you   not   go   there  with   me   some  after- 
noon ? ' 

"  I  did  not  respond  to  the  appeal.  My  interest 
in  the  occult  which  had  been  stimulated  by  a 
curious  prediction  made  at  the  first  seance  1  ever 
attended  in  1881,  had  languished  under  the 
stress  of  mundane  pre-occupations.  Madam 
NovikofF  repeated  her  invitation  more  insistently 
than  before.  Even  then  I  do  not  think  I  should 
have  consented  to  go  had  Madame  Blavatsky  not 
been  a  Russian.  However,  to  make  a  long 
story  short,  1  went.  I  was  delighted  with,  and 
at  the  same  time  somewhat  repelled,  by  Madame 
Blavatsky.  Power  was  there,  rude  and  massive, 
but  she  had  the  manners  of  a  man,  and  a  very 
unconventional  man,  rather  than  those  of  a  lady. 
But  we  got  on  very  well  together,  and  Madame 
Blavatsky  gave  me  her  portrait,  certifying  that  I 
might  call  myself  what  I  pleased,  but  that  she 
knew  I  was  a  good  theosophist. 

"  The  pleasant  relations  thus  established  with 
Madame  Blavatsky  had  unexpected  results. 
When  the  '  Secret  Doctrine  '  came  in  for  review 
to  the  Pall  Mall  Office  I  shrank  in  dismay  from 
tlje  task  of  mastering  its  contents.  I  took  it 
down  to  Mrs.  Besant,  who  had  for  some  time 
past  been  attending  seances  and  interesting  her- 
self in  the  other  world  and  asked  her  if  she 
would  review  it.  She  grappled  with  the  task, 
was  fascinated  by  its  contents,  and  when  she 
finished  her  review  she  asked  me  if  I  could 
introduce  her  to  the  author.  I  did  so  with 
pleasure.  From  that  introduction  dates  the 


156  MY   FATHER 

latest  evolution  in  Mrs.  Besant's  career.  Madame 
Blavatsky  became  everything  to  Mrs.  Besant. 
She  was  proud  and  glad  to  kneel  at  her  feet 
arid  drink  in  her  teachings  as  if  they  were  the 
oracles  of  Divine  Wisdom.  When  Madame 
Blavatsky  died,  Mrs.  Besant  was  appointed  her 
successor.  She  is  now  President  of  the  Theo- 
sophical  Society.  But,  humanly  speaking,  if 
Madam  Novikoff  had  not  been  so  insistent  in 
making  me  call  upon  Madame  Blavatsky  the 
Theosophical  Society  might  never  have  secured 
the  adhesion  of  Annie  Besant." 


CHAPTER  XIII 


JULIA  " 


One  of  the  most  promising  and  gifted  of  the  women  journalists 
of  my  acquaintance. — W.  T.  STEAD. 

IT  was  at  this  time  (1890)  that  Julia  A.  Ames — 
an  American  journalist,  one  of  the  editors  of  the 
Union  Signal,  Chicago  —  ardent  supporter  of 
Temperance  Reform  and  a  great  friend  of  and  co- 
worker  with  Frances  Willard,  of  the  W.C.T.U., 
paid  her  first  visit  to  Europe  and  fulfilled  one  of 
the  ambitions  of  her  life,  which  was  to  see  Europe 
and  witness  the  Passion  Play  at  Ober  Ammergau. 
One  of  her  first  visits,  after  her  arrival  in  London, 
was  to  Mowbray  House  to  see  my  Father  and  ask 
his  advice  as  to  the  best  route  to  Ober  Ammergau. 
They  talked,  and  he  gave  her  the  required  directions, 
and  his  book  "The  Story  that  Transformed  the 
World." 

On  her  return  from  the  Continent,  she  again 
visited  my  Father,  this  time  at  Cambridge  House, 
Wimbledon,  where  she  met  my  mother  and  some 
of  the  family,  and  had  tea  in  the  garden,  under  the 
shade  of  an  old  oak  tree  at  the  end  of  the  lawn. 

157 


158  MY   FATHER 

How  little  either  Julia  or  my  Father  realised,  on  that 
bright  summer  day,  how  closely  they  were  to  be 
linked  together  in  the  great  work  which  lay  ahead, 
how  they  were  to  work  together  to  build  the  bridge 
between  the  two  worlds,  how  the  name  of  Julia 
was  to  be  known  all  over  the  world,  and  the  house, 
in  the  garden  of  which  they  were  sitting,  was,  in 
the  course  of  years,  to  become  the  inner  sanctuary 
of  "  Julia's  "  Bureau,  and  the  old  oak  tree  was  to  be 
spoken  of  as  "  Julia's  Oak,"  is  evident  from  the  fact 
that  although  they  discussed  many  subjects, 
Spiritualism  was  never  once  referred  to. 

These  were  the  only  two  occasions  on  which  my 
Father  and  Julia  met.  At  the  time  Julia  wrote  to 
a  friend  : — "  The  chief  feature  of  my  visit  to 
London  was  my  interview  with  Mr.  W.  T.  Stead, 
at  the  office  of  the  Review  of  Reviews." 

Miss  Ames  was  not  a  Spiritualist — she  was  a 
highly  religious  woman  and  a  Methodist,  very  level- 
headed and  possessing  a  great  amount  of  common 
sense.  My  Father  writes  of  her  :  "  She  was  about 
thirty  years  of  age,  an  ardent  and  enthusiastic 
Christian,  and  one  of  the  most  promising  and  gifted 
of  the  women  journalists  of  my  acquaintance." 

Shortly  after  her  return  to  America,  Miss  Ames 
was  taken  ill  with  pneumonia  and  died  at  Boston, 
and  my  Father,  to  quote  his  own  words,  "  never 
had  the  slightest  idea  I  should  hear  from  her 
again." 


HOLLY-BUSH  "— THE   SEASIDE    COTTAGE    WHERE    HE    SPENT 
MUCH   OF   HIS   TIME    I\    LATER   YEARS. 


CAMBRIDGE  HOUSE,  WIMBLEDON. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

REAL    GHOST    STORIES 

"After  all  is  said  and  done,  we  shall  all  be  ghosts  ourselves  some 
day,  and  it  is  only  natural  we  should  be  interested  in  ascertaining 
something  more  or  less  definite  about  the  experiences  qf  those 
who  have  already  been  disencumbered  of  their  bodies." — 
W.  T.  STEAD.  Preface  to  "  Real  Ghost  Stories." 

GRADUALLY,  however,  his  mind  was  opening  to 
the  Spiritual  forces  impelling  him  onwards,  and  he 
was  becoming  more  and  more  conscious  of  the  thin- 
ness of  the  veil  between.  He  began  now  to  take 
an  active  interest  in  trying  to  find  out  more  about 
the  Borderland  phenomena. 

For  his  Christmas  Number  in  1891  he  collected 
Ghost  stories  from  all  over  the  country  and  pub- 
lished them  under  the  title  of  "  Real  Ghost  Stories." 
So  great  was  the  demand  for  these  stories  that  the 
first  number  was  followed  in  a  few  months  by  a 
companion  entitled  "  More  Ghost  Stories."  His 
"  Prefatory  Word  "  gives  an  idea  of  his  outlook  at 
this  period  :— 

"  Many  people  will  object — some  have  already 
objected — to  the  subject  of  this  book.     It  is  an 


159 


160  MY   FATHER 

offence  to  some  to  take  a  ghost  too  seriously  ; 
with  others  it  is  a  still  greater  offence  not  to 
take  ghosts  seriously  enough.  One  set  of  objec- 
tions can  be  paired  off  against  the  other  ;  neither 
objection  has  very  solid  foundation.  The  time 
has  surely  come  when  the  fair  claim  of  ghosts 
to  the  impartial  attention  and  careful  observation 
of  mankind  should  no  longer  be  ignored.  In 
earlier  times  people  believed  in  them  so  much 
that  they  cut  their  acquaintance ;  in  later  times 
people  believe  in  them  so  little  that  they  will 
not  even  admit  their  existence.  Thus  these 
mysterious  visitants  have  hitherto  failed  to  enter 
into  that  friendly  relation  with  mankind  which 
many  of  them  seem  sincerely  to  desire.  But 
what  with  the  superstitious  credulity  of  the  one 
age  and  the  equally  superstitious  unbelief  of 
another,  it  is  necessary  to  begin  from  the 
beginning  and  to  convince  a  sceptical  world 
that  apparitions  really  appear.  In  order  to  do 
this  it  is  necessary  to  insist  that  your  ghost 
should  no  longer  be  ignored  as  a  phenomenon  of 
Nature.  He  has  a  right  to  be  examined  and 
observed,  studied  and  defined,  which  is  equal  to 
that  of  any  other  natural  phenomenon.  It  is 
true  that  he  is  a  rather  difficult  phenomenon  ;  his 
comings  and  goings  are  rather  intermittent  and 
fitful,  his  substance  is  too  shadowy  to  be  handled, 
and  he  has  avoided  hitherto  equally  the  obtrusive 
inquisitiveness  of  the  microscope  and  telescope.  A 
phenomenon  which  you  can  neither  handle  nor 
weigh,  analyse  nor  dissect,  is  naturally  regarded 
as  intractable  and  troublesome ;  nevertheless, 


REAL   GHOST   STORIES  161 

however  intractable  and  troublesome  he  may  be 
to  reduce  to  any  of  the  existing  scientific  cate- 
gories, we  have  no  right  to  allow  his  idiosyncrasies 
to  deprive  him  of  his  innate  right  to  be  regarded 
as  a  phenomenon. 

"  Some  take  exception  on  the  ground  that 
there  is  something  irreligious  and  contrary  to 
Christianity  in  the  chronicling  of  such  phenomena. 
It  is  fortunate  that  Mary  Magdalene  and  the 
early  disciples  did  not  hold  that  theory.  So  far 
from  its  being  irreligious  to  ascertain  facts,  there 
is  a  subtle  impiety  in  the  refusal  to  face  pheno- 
mena, whether  natural  or  supernatural.  Either 
these  things  exist  or  they  do  not.  If  they  do  not 
exist,  then  obviously  there  can  be  no  harm  in  a 
searching  examination  of  the  delusion  which 
possessed  the  mind  of  almost  every  worthy  in 
the  Old  Testament,  and  which  was  constantly 
affirmed  by  the  authors  of  the  New.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  they  do  exist,  and  are  perceptible 
under  certain  conditions  to  our  senses,  it  will  be 
difficult  to  affirm  the  impiety  of  endeavouring  to 
ascertain  what  is  their  nature,  and  what  light 
they  are  able  to  throw  upon  the  kingdom  of  the 
Unseen.  We  have  no  right  to  shut  our  eyes  to 
facts  and  close  our  ears  to  evidence  merely 
because  Moses  forbade  the  Hebrews  to  allow 
witches  to  live,  or  because  some  of  the  phenomena 
carry  with  them  suggestions  that  do  not 
altogether  harmonise  with  the  conventional 
orthodox  theories  of  future  life.  The  whole 
question  that  lies  at  bottom  is  whether  this 
world  is  divine  or  diabolic.  Those  who  believe 

M 


162  MY   FATHER 

it  divine  are  bound  by  that  belief  to  regard  every 
phenomenon  as  a  window  through  which  man 
may  gain  fresh  glimpses  of  the  wonder  and  the 
glory  of  the  Infinite.  Tn  this  region,  as  in  all 
others,  faith  and  fear  go  ill  together. 

"  If  it  can  be  proved  that  it  is  occasionally 
possible  for  persons  at  the  uttermost  ends  of  the 
world  to  communicate  instantaneously  with  each 
other,  and  even  in  some  cases  to  make  a  vivid 
picture  of  themselves  stand  before  the  eyes  of 
those  to  whom  they  speak,  no  prejudice  as  to  the 
unhealthy  nature  of  the  inquiry  should  be  allowed 
to  stand  in  the  way  of  the  examination  of  such  a 
fact  with  a  view  to  ascertaining  whether  or  not 
this  latent  capacity  of  the  human  mind  can  be 
utilised  for  the  benefit  of  mankind. 

"  There  seems  to  be  a  growing  interest  in  all 
the  occult  phenomena  to  which  this  work  is 
devoted.  It  is  in  evidence  on  every  hand.  The 
topic  is  in  the  air,  and  will  be  discussed  arid  is 
being  discussed,  whether  we  take  notice  of  it  or 
not.  That  it  has  its  dangers  those  who  have 
studied  it  most  closely  are  most  aware,  but  these 
dangers  will  exist  in  any  case,  and  if  those  who 
ought  to  guide  are  silent,  these  perils  will  be 
encountered  without  the  safeguards  which  experi- 
ence would  dictate  and  prudence  suggest.  It 
seems  to  me  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  do 
better  service  in  this  direction  than  to  strengthen 
the  hands  of  those  who  have  for  many  years  past 
been  trying  to  rationalise  the  consideration  of  the 
Science  of  Ghosts. 

"  As  the  net  result  of  my  very  cursory  survey 


REAL   GHOST   STORIES  163 

and  amateur  experimenting,  I  have  come  to  a 
very  decided  opinion  that  for  the  majority — the 
vast  majority  of  men  and  women — the  subject 
had  better  be  left  alone  so  far  as  the  direct  inten- 
tional production  of  phenomena  is  concerned. 
This  applies  to  all  spiritualist  seances,  hypnotist 
experiments,  and  dabbling  in  magic.  Those  who 
meddle  in  such  matters  from  idle  curiosity  run 
serious  risks.  To  put  it  mildly,  they  may  become 
the  subjects  of  hallucinations  indistinguishable 
from  the  delusions  of  the  insane,  or  they  may 
lose  all  control  over  their  actions  and  become,  as 
in  cases  of  post-hypnotic  suggestion,  the  absolute 
slaves  of  another  and  evil  will.  At  the  same 
time,  while  deprecating  the  deliberate  inducing 
of  these  phenomena  on  the  part  of  Tom,  Dick 
and  Harry,  there  can  be  no  objection  to  the 
scientific  study  of  any  and  every  subject  that  can 
engage  the  human  mind.  It  is  no  argument 
against  the  laboratory  of  the  chemist  that  children 
occasionally  hurt  themselves  in  making  hydrogen 
out  of  zinc  nails  and  sulphuric  acid,  nor  do  we  sup- 
press the  manufacture  of  explosives  because  every 
year  amateur  pyrotechnists  burn  their  fingers. 
If  in  these  occult  studies  the  scientific  investigator 
can  hope  to  discover  the  secret  of  telepathic 
communication,  the  art  of  transporting  ourselves 
invisibly  and  instantly  to  the  end  of  the  earth,  of 
seeing  clairvoyantly  everything  that  has  been 
done  since  the  world  began,  it  would  be  a  crime 
against  the  progress  of  the  race  to  place  any 
bar  upon  such  inquiries  and  experiments.  But 
they  are  distinctly  for  the  few  who  have  leisure, 

M  2 


164  MY   FATHER 

culture,  and  the  intellectual  faculties  indispensable 
for  the  profitable  conduct  of  such  investigations. 
"  What,  then,  becomes  of  our  favourite  formula, 
the  democratisation  of  knowledge  ?  It  remains 
where  it  was.  The  democratisation  of  railways 
does  not  mean  that  every  man,  woman,  and  child 
is  to  be  allowed  to  drive  the  engine,  It  does 
mean  that  they  have  all  to  have  free  access  to 
the  train  if  they  take  their  tickets.  So  the  demo- 
cratisation of  the  Science  of  Ghosts  does  not 
mean  that  everyone  is  to  set  up  a  seance  in  his 
own  house,  or  practise  black  magic  in  his  own 
back  parlour.  What  it  means  is  that  instead  of 
the  subject  being  scouted  and  tabooed  and 
ridiculed,  and  all  information  hidden  from  the 
common  people,  it  shall  be  openly  discussed, 
freely  handled,  and  the  results  of  investigation 
made  known  to  every  one.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  world  so  healthy  as  light.  It  is  because  the 
light  has  not  been  let  in  upon  this  realm  that 
the  atmosphere  is  so  mephitic.  '  Light,  more 
light ! '  must  be  in  this,  as  in  all  other  realms  of 
nature,  the  constant  cry  of  the  searcher  for 
truth." 

In  Part  I,  he  discusses  at  some  length  the  ghost 
that  dwells  in  each  of  us. 

"  Thrilling  as  are  some  of  the  stories  of  the 
apparitions  of  the  living  and  the  dead,"  he  says, 
"they  are  less  sensational  than  the  suggestion 
recently  made  by  hypnotists  and  psychical  re- 
searchers of  England  and  France,  that  each  of 
us  has  a  ghost  inside  him.  They  say  that  we  are 


REAL   GHOST   STORIES  165 

all  haunted  by  a  Spiritual  Presence,  of  whose 
existence  we  are  only  fitfully  and  sometimes 
never  conscious,  but  which  nevertheless  inhabits 
the  innermost  recesses  of  our  personality.  The 
theory  of  these  researchers  is  that  besides  the 
body  and  the  mind,  meaning  by  the  mind  the 
Conscious  Personality,  there  is  also  within  our 
material  frame  the  soul  or  Unconscious  Person- 
ality, the  nature  of  which  is  shrouded  in  un- 
fathomable mystery.  The  latest  word  of 
advanced  science  has  thus  landed  us  back  in  the 
apostolic  assertion  that  man  is  composed  of  body, 
soul,  and  spirit ;  and  there  are  some  who  see  in 
the  scientific  doctrine  of  the  Unconscious  Person- 
ality, a  welcome  confirmation  from  an  unexpected 
quarter,  of  the  existence  of  the  soul. 

"  The  strife  to  which  recent  researches  into  the 
nature  and  constitution  of  our  mental  processes 
calls  attention  concerns  our  conscious  selves.  It 
suggests  almost  inconceivable  possibilities  as  to 
our  own  nature,  and  leaves  us  appalled  on  the 
brink  of  a  new  world  of  being,  of  which,  until 
recently,  most  of  us  were  unaware. 

"  '  I,'  what  am  I  ?  What  is  our  Ego  ?  Is 
this  Conscious  Personality  which  receives  im- 
pressions through  the  five  senses,  and  through 
them  alone,  is  it  the  only  dweller  in  this  mortal 
tabernacle  ?  May  there  not  be  other  personal- 
ities, or  at  least  one  other  that  is  not  conscious, 
when  we  are  awake,  and  alert,  and  about,  but 
which  comes  into  semi-consciousness  when  we 
sleep,  and  can  be  developed  into  complete  con- 
sciousness when  the  other  personality  is  thrown 


166  MY   FATHER 

into  a  state  of  hypnotic  trance  ?  In  other  words 
am  I  one  personality  or  two  ?  Is  my  nature 
dual  ?  As  I  have  two  hemispheres  in  my  brain, 
have  I  two  minds  or  two  souls  ? 

"  If  I  were  free  to  use  the  simplest  illustration 
without  any  pretence  at  scientific  exactitude,  I 
should  say  that  the  new  theory  supposes  that 
there  are  inside  each  of  us  not  one  personality 
but  two,  and  that  these  two  correspond  to  the 
husband  and  wife.  There  is  the  Conscious 
Personality,  which  stands  for  the  husband.  It 
is  vigorous,  alert,  active,  positive,  monopolising 
all  the  means  of  communication  and  production. 
So  intense  is  its  consciousness  that  it  ignores  the 
very  existence  of  its  partner,  excepting  as  a  mere 
appendage  and  convenience  to  itself.  Then  there 
is  the  Unconscious  Personality,  which  corres- 
ponds to  the  wife,  who  keeps  cupboard  and  store- 
house, and  the  old  stocking  which  treasures  up 
the  accumulated  wealth  of  impressions  acquired 
by  the  Conscious  Personality,  but  who  is  never 
able  to  assert  any  right  to  anything,  or  to  the  use 
of  sense  or  limb  except  when  her  lord  and  master 
is  asleep  or  entranced.  When  the  Conscious 
Personality  has  acquired  any  habit  or  faculty  so 
completely  that  it  becomes  instinctive,  it  is 
handed  on  to  the  Unconscious  Personality  to 
keep  and  use,  the  Conscious  Ego  giving  it  no 
longer  any  attention.  Deprived,  like  the  wife  in 
countries  where  the  subjection  of  woman  is  the 
universal  law,  of  all  right  to  an  independent  exist- 
ence, or  to  the  use  of  the  senses,  or  of  the  limbs, 
the  Unconscious  Personality  has  discovered  ways 


REAL   GHOST   STORIES  167 

and  means  of  communicating  other  than  through 
the  recognised  organs  of  sense.  How  vast  and 
powerful  are  those  hidden  organs  of  the  Uncon- 
scious Personality  we  can  only  dimly  see.  It  is 
through  them  that  Divine  revelation  is  vouch- 
safed to  man.  The  visions  of  the  mystic,  the 
prophecies  of  the  seer,  the  inspiration  of  the 
sibyl,  all  come  through  this  Unconscious  Soul. 
It  is  through  this  dumb  and  suppressed  Ego  that 
we  communicate  by  telepathy — that  thought  is 
transferred  without  using  the  five  senses.  This 
under-soul  is  in  touch  with  the  over-soul,  which, 
in  Emerson's  noble  phrase,  '  abolishes  time  and 
space.'  'This  influence  of  the  senses  has,'  he 
says,  'in  most  men,  overpowered  their  mind  to 
that  degree  that  the  walls  of  time  and  space  have 
come  to  look  real  and  unsurmountable ;  and  to 
speak  with  levity  of  these  limits  is  in  the  world 
the  sign  of  insanity.' 

"  In  proportion  as  the  active,  domineering 
Conscious  Personality  extinguishes  his  sub- 
missive unconscious  partner,  materialism 
flourishes,  and  man  becomes  blind  to  the 
Divinity  that  underlies  all  things.  Hence  in 
all  religions  the  first  step  is  to  silence  the  noisy, 
bustling  master  of  our  earthly  tabernacle,  who, 
having  monopolised  the  five  senses,  will  listen 
to  no  voice  which  it  cannot  hear,  and  to  allow 
the  silent  mistress  to  be  open-souled  to  God. 
Hence  the  stress  which  all  spiritual  religions 
have  laid  upon  contemplation,  upon  prayer  and 
fasting.  Hence  we  read  in  the  Scriptures  of 
losing  life  that  we  may  find  it ;  for  things  of 


168  MY   FATHER 

time   and   sense   are   temporal,   but   the   things 
which  are  not  seen  are  eternal." 

But  it  is  at  the  end  of  the  book  in  his  "  Parting 
Word  "  that  he  gives,  the  key  to  his  reasons  for 
these  searchings.  He  says: 

"  The  greatest  gain,  however,  that  is  likely 
to  accrue  from  the  study  of  these  phenomena., 
will  arise  from  the  deepened  certainty  which 
it  gives  as  to  the  permanence  of  the  individual 
after  death.  Of  immortality  I  say  nothing. 
That  cannot,  from  the  nature  of  things,  be 
demonstrated.  But  of  a  life  after  death — a 
life  in  which  those  who  live  on  this  side  of  the 
grave  retain  their  identity  in  the  other  world— 
that  may  yet  be  demonstrated  by  tests  as  exact 
and  as  conclusive  as  any  of  which  the  science  of 
psychology  admits.  When  dust  returns  to  dust 
and  ashes  to  ashes,  the  Ego  lives  on ;  the 
personal  identity,  the  consciousness  of  the  in- 
dividual, does  not  seem  to  be  even  momentarily 
impaired.  It  does  not  seem  to  be  too  bold  a 
speculation  to  believe  that  the  patient  methods 
of  inductive  science,  the  careful  examination  of 
evidence,  and  the  repeatedly  renewed  experi- 
ments of  investigators,  will  before  long  com- 
pletely re-establish  the  failing  belief  in  the 
reality  of  the  world  beyond  the  grave,  and  leave 
us  with  as  little  room  for  doubt  as  to  the 
existence  of  the  spirit  after  death,  as  we  have 
now  for  doubting  the  existence  of  Behririg 
Straits  or  of  the  Pyramids.  It  is  possible  that 
this  bringing  of  life  and  immortality  to  light, 


REAL   GHOST   STORIES  169 

or  at  least  the  establishment  of  the  certainty 
of  a  future  life  upon  impregnable  scientific 
foundations,  may  seem  to  some  by  no  means 
an  unmixed  blessing.  To  many  it  would 
undoubtedly  add  a  new  terror  to  death.  The 
thought  of  a  prolonged  existence  in  a  more 
spiritual  sphere,  where  you  would  witness  the 
working  out  of  the  dread  consequences  of 
the  breach  of  laws  and  of  the  neglect  of 
responsibilities,  is  often  anything  but  attractive 
to  the  mind  of  man.  To  rest,  and  that  for 
ever,  even  in  the  grave,  seems  sometimes  the 
boon  of  boons.  It  would  seem  to  be  an 
unattainable  one.  For,  if  the  testimonies  of 
many  credible  witnessess  may  be  believed,  there 
is  no  death.  The  form — the  vesture — perishes, 
but  the  soul,  the  Ego,  the  essential  principle, 
lives  on.  Revelation  has  always  affirmed  this. 
It  seems  as  if  Science  were  once  more  to 
vindicate  her  claim  to  be  regarded  as  the 
handmaid  of  Religion  by  affording  conclusive 
demonstration  of  its  reality.  Whether  we  like 
this  or  dislike  it,  is  immaterial.  The  supreme 
question  is,  What  is  the  truth  ?  And  whatever 
drawbacks  there  may  be  to  the  theory  of  the 
future  life,  there  is  at  least  one  enormous 
compensating  advantage  in  knowing  that  the 
accounts  between  man  and  his  Maker  are  not 
finally  closed  when  he  ceases  to  breathe  on 
earth,  and  that  the  Almighty  has  still  the 
infinite  expanse  of  eternity  in  which  to  vindicate 
the  justice  of  His  dealings  with  every  human 
soul." 


CHAPTER  XV 

AUTOMATIC    WRITING.       HOW    HE    BEGAN    TO    WRITE 

"  Stead  may  make  a  great  many  mistakes,  but  he  is  the  man  we 
require  for  a  great  work,  for  he  has  faith — that  Master  spirit  once 
said,  '  without  faith  you  can  do  nothing '  and  it  is  only  a  man 
who  has  faith  who  can  accomplish  a  great  work. — FREDERICK, 
1892. 

"  IT  was  not  until  the  early  summer  of 
1892," l  he  writes,  "that  I  first  was  conscious  of 
the  capacity  to  write  automatically.  It  came 
about  in  this  way.  A  young  lady,  who  was 
then  in  my  office,  the  daughter  of  an  Indian 
officer,  had  for  some  time  possessed  the  faculty 
of  automatic  writing.  She  only  half  believed 
in  her  power  herself,  and  was  at  first  very 
reluctant  to  try  it  in  my  presence. 

"  One  day,  in  the  spring,  she  was  staying  with 
a  friend  in  Surrey,  and  tried  the  experiment  as 
to  whether  or  not  her  hand  would  write.  To 
her  surprise,  it  was  immediately  controlled  by 
an  intelligence  calling  himself  '  Frederick  '  who 
wrote  a  very  neat  hand,  clear  and  distinct,  very 
1  Borderland,  1893, 

170 


AUTOMATIC    WRITING  171 

different  from  that  of  any  of  her  other  controls. 
He  always  began,  '  I  am  here. — Frederick.'  On 
this  occasion,  her  hand,  when  under  the  alleged 
control  of  'Frederick,'  gave  a  detailed  account 
of  circumstances  of  interest  to  a  friend  who  was 
present,  and  on  whose  account  it  was  that 
Frederick  alleged  that  he  had  come. 

"  The  following  is  the  message  written  by 
Frederick  on  this  occasion: — 

"  *  I  am  here — Frederick. 

"  *  I  want  to  tell  Mr.  P.  that  if  he  does  not  take 
care  he  is  going  to  be  swindled  out  of  some 
money,  but  if  he  takes  care  he  can  avoid  this. 
He  is  endeavouring  to  sell  some  property  in  A. 
through  the  agency  of  Mr.  Z.  Mr.  Z.  tells 
him  he  cannot  get  more  than  a  certain  sum  for 
the  property.  If  he  will  wait  till  the  next 
mail—  The  writing  finished  and  the  lady, 
whom  I  will  call  Miss  C.,  knowing  nothing  of  the 
purport  of  the  message,  turned  to  the  gentleman 
and  showing  him  what  her  hand  had  written,  said 
'  This  may  be  the  greatest  nonsense.'  He,  how- 
ever, was  very  much  struck  by  it  and  said,  '  I  am 
selling  some  property  in  A.  and  Mr.  Z.  is  my 
solicitor.  I  think  he  is  an  honest  man,  but  I  will 
wait  till  next  mail  comes  in.'  The  next  week 
he  received  a  letter  by  the  next  mail  to  say  the 
property  was  worth  two  or  three  hundred  pounds 
more. 

"  On  returning  to  town,  the  lady  communicated 
to  me  the  experience  which  had  befallen  her, 
and,  after  some  little  pressing,  agreed  to  try  and 
see  if  '  Frederick  '  would  write  in  my  presence. 


172  MY   FATHER 

He  did  so  at  once,  and  many  communications — 
some  of  which  were  very  sensible,  others  more 
doubtful — were  made  by  the  alleged  '  Frederick ' 
through  her  hand. 

"  On  one  occasion  *  Frederick '  wrote  that 
Mrs.  D.,  naming  a  deceased  lady,  whose  son  was 
known  to  me,  was  standing  close  to  me,  almost 
touching  my  shoulder,  and  wished  to  com- 
municate with  me.  He  then  gave  several 
messages,  which  he  said  he  had  received  from  her, 
relating  to  her  son,  all  of  which  sounded  sensible 
enough. 

"  On  another  occasion  he  suddenly  announced 
that  this  lady  was  there  again,  and  wished  to 
communicate  something  to  me  which  she  would 
not  tell  him.  I  said  that  it  would  be  impossible 
for  her  to  communicate  with  me  directly,  as  1 
was  blind,  deaf  and  dumb  in  all  psychical  matters. 
Whereupon  '  Frederick '  wrote  that  Mrs.  D. 
said  that  she  could  write  through  my  hand  if  I 
were  to  give  her  a  chance.  I  at  once  took  the 
pencil  in  my  hand,  and  waited  for  the  control.  I 
waited  for  five  minutes,  and  nothing  having 
come,  my  hand  remaining  absolutely  motionless, 
I  laid  the  pencil  down,  and  said  it  was  no  use. 
'  Frederick  '  then  wrote — always  using  the  lady's 
hand — '  I  was  not  patient  enough  ;  that  I  ought 
to  give  Mrs.  D.  more  time.'  After  some 
objection,  I  said  I  would  give  her  another  five 
minutes.  That  period  passed  with  same  result. 
I  laid  down  the  pencil,  saying  it  was  no  good. 
'  I  am  absolutely  devoid  of  any  mediumistic 
power.  If  Mrs.  D.  wishes  to  communicate  any- 


AUTOMATIC   WRITING  173 

thing  with  me,  she  must  communicate  through 
"  Frederick  "  and  his  medium.  I  shall  never  be 
able  to  get  any  direct  writing.' 

"  A  week  or  two  later,  '  Frederick '  wrote 
saying  that  *  Mrs.  D.  was  there  again,  this  time 
weeping  bitterly.' 

"  'What  is  the  matter  with  the  good  lady? ' "  I 
asked. 

"'She  says,'  '  Frederick '  wrote,  "  'that  she  has 
something  to  communicate  with  Mr.  Stead,  but 
that  he  is  impatient,  he  will  not  give  her  a  chance 
of  using  his  hand.' 

"  I  said,  somewhat  roughly,  that  I  had  given 
her  two  chances,  and  that  I  could  not  go  on 
fooling  around  for  ever  with  a  spook  that  would 
not  write  when  it  got  the  chance. 

"  *  Frederick  '  then  wrote  that  Mrs.  D.  begged 
for  another  trial. 

"  I  said,  '  Well,  I  will  give  her  one  more  trial, 
but  I  have  not  the  time  to  waste  sitting  with  a 
pencil  in  my  hand,  waiting  for  it  to  move,  when 
I  know  all  the  time  it  never  will  write  any- 
thing.' 

" '  Frederick '  then  wrote  that  Mrs.  D.  would 
be  willing,  if  I  would  give  her  nine  minutes  in 
the  morning  before  I  began  work. 

"  I  said  I  would,  and  the  next  morning  I  tried. 
Before  I  had  sat  three  minutes  my  hand  began 
to  move,  very  tremulously  at  first,  and  making 
marks  that  were  at  first  almost  unintelligible. 
After  a  little  these  marks  became  more  legible, 
and,  at  last,  slowly,  and  apparently  with  infinite 
difficulty,  a  message  was  written  out,  imploring 


174  MY   FATHER 

me  to  do  what  I  could  to  save  her  son.  When 
that  one  brief  message  was  written  the  power 
seemed  to  be  exhausted,  and  my  hand  would 
write  no  more. 

"  The  next  development  was  that  my  hand 
was  controlled  by  something  who  called  itself 
'  Henry  L.'  and  professed  to  be  a  disembodied 
spirit  who,  in  his  lifetime,  had  been  violently 
opposed  to  me  in  Manchester,  but  who  now 
attended  in  order  to  help  Mrs.  D.  to  control 
my  hand,  as  he  had  more  power  than  she  had. 
I  received  a  variety  of  messages  from  him,  some 
of  which  were  sensible  enough,  but  finding  that 
I  could  not  verify  any  of  the  statements  which 
he  made  as  to  his  own  identity,  and  as  he 
repeatedly  made  egregiously  absurd  statements 
concerning  my  friends,  I  discarded  him,  and 
would  not  let  him  write  again.  Mrs.  D.  wrote 
fitfully,  but  always  with  great  difficulty." 

In  the  Bureau  Archives  are  to  be  found 
many  of  these  original  messages,  and  I  think  it 
will  be  of  interest  to  many  to  read  the  following 
selections.  Only  one  is  dated,  but  they  were 
all  taken  through  Miss  C.'s  hand  about  this 
time. 

FREDERICK. 

"June   23rd   (1892),    (Mrs.    D.)     I   am   here 

Frederick She   is  here   now  and   she 

says  that  if  you  will  let  her  (have),  make  a  trial, 
she  will  try  to  write  through  you  yourself.  Yes, 
but  be  patient  and  help  her.  She  has  never 
made  an  (attempt). 


AUTOMATIC   WRITING  175 

"  She  is  so  eager  that  she  will  not  be  long  in 
learning  to  control  him.  She  has  never— 

(then  come  some  faint  scrawls  over  the  paper, 
quite  unintelligible,  my  Father  holding  the  pen). 

"She  has  only  just  begun  to  write  and  has 
never  tried  before,  it  does  not  depend  on  him,  it 
is  not  his  fault,  his  thought  on  the  lady,  for 
she  needs  to  speak,  she  begs  me  to  tell  him 
that. 

(more  faint  scrawls). 


FREDERICK. 

"He  (Mr.  Stead)  has  a  lady  standing  near 
him  who  seems  to  be  in  deep  grief.  She  is 
weeping  but  she  has  tried.  Let  Mr.  Stead  go 
on  trying,  for  he  is  a  very  good  medium  and 
he  can  be  well  controlled  for  he  is  so  much  in 
sympathy  with  many  of  us.  He  must  only 
be  patient  and  he  will  obtain  great  results, 
(more  faint  scrawls  quite  unintelligible). 

"  She  is  most  anxious  to  speak  to  you  and  is 
in  such  close  touch  with  you  that  she  will  soon 
be  able  to  manage  the  writing  by  your  hand. 
The  thing  she  wishes  to  tell  you  is  private  and 
she  will  not  speak  through  me. 

"  You  wished  to  know  if  she  had  been  trying 
to  write  through  you  and  I  was  about  to  say 
yes,  when  I  was  prevented — she  tells  me  to  say 
she  could  speak  more  freely  if  she  writes  through 


176  MY   FATHER 

you.  .  .  .  You  will  rapidly  develop  and  you  do 
not  need  to  sit  at  it  long. 

"  They  tell  me  I  am  to  say  you  (Mr.  Stead) 
are  not  making  the  best  use  of  your  spiritual 
faculties. 

"  I  am  sure  that  if  he  (Mr.  Stead)  goes  on  he 
will  have  a  latent  spiritual  faculty  developed. 
He  is  a  strong  medium.  And  we  will  develop 
him. 

"The  men  who  have  faith  in  the  possibilities  of 
God  alone  are  able  to  reach  great  heights. 

"  I  would  like  you  to  understand  that  I  of 
myself  can  foresee  nothing.  What  I  am  allowed 
to  reveal  to  you  I  can — but  much  is  hidden 
from  me. 

"  You  should  not  disbelieve  me — there  are  some 
people  who  would  not  believe  if  the  GREAT 
SPIRIT  revealed  Himself  direct  to  them.  You 
may  fancy  that  it  is  intellect,  but  it  is  presumption. 
Yes." 

Writing    through   my   Father's    own    hand    on 
August  4th,  1898,  a  year  later,  Frederick  wrote  :— 

"  The  work  you  have  to  do  is  to  abolish  death. 
You  will  do  it,  but  don't  be  in  too  great  a 
hurry. 

"  Never  fear  and  remember  that  you  have  a 
work  to  do  which  you  must  do,  not  only  for 
men  but  for  spirits.  You  have  done  much.  But 
you  must  do  more." 


CHAPTER   XVI 

1892.       EASTNOR    CASTLE 

Now  these  things  make  it  seem  not  scientific  to  refuse  to 
believe."— W.  T.  STEAD. 

SOON  after  this  my  Father,  with  my  mother  and 
my  brother  Will,  went  down  to  Eastnor  Castle  to 
stay  with  Lady  Henry  Somerset,  from  where  he 
edited  the  local  paper  at  Ledbury  during  Sir 
Charles  Dilke's  election  campaign.  A  young  lady, 
Miss  E.,  was  also  staying  at  the  Castle.  One  day 
she  came  to  my  Father  and  asked  if  he  knew  a 
good  clairvoyant  or  medium.  He  said  he  did,  and 
would  introduce  her  to  Mrs.  Russell  Davies  on  her 
return  to  town.  He  asked  her  why  she  wished  to 
see  one.  She  then  told  him  that  her  greatest 
friend  on  earth,  Miss  Ames,  had  died  the  previous 
year.  She  told  him  she  and  Miss  Ames  had  lived 
together  and  worked  together  for  years,  and  that 
they  had  promised  each  other  that  the  first  to 
die  would,  if  possible,  come  back  and  show  herself 
to  the  survivor,  so  that  the  latter  might  thereby 
know  of  the  certainty  of  another  life — the  possi- 
bility of  communication. 

N 


177 


178  MY   FATHER 

"  She  had  not  been  dead  six  weeks,"  said 
Miss  E.,  "  before  I  was  awakened  one  night  with 
a  sudden  start — I  was  wide  awake  and  I  looked, 
and  there  by  my  bedside  was  Julia,  looking 
radiantly  happy,  with  a  bright  light  all  around 
her.  I  could  not  speak.  She  stayed  about  five 
minutes  and  then  she  faded  away,  and  I  only 
saw  the  light  in  the  place  where  she  had  been 
standing.  I  thought  afterwards  this  might  have 
been  an  hallucination,  as  her  death  was  recent, 
and  I  was  in  such  terrible  distress  about  her. 
But  I  know  now  it  was  no  hallucination,  but 
Julia  herself,  for  she  came  again  last  night — I 
was  wide-awake — I  had  not  gone  to  sleep.  She 
came  to  my  bedside  and  looked  at  me  very 
lovingly — I  know  she  wanted  to  say  something 
to  me,  but  I  couldn't  speak  to  her.  There  was 
710  mistake  about  it ;  I  saw  her  quite  distinctly ; 
I  know  it  was  Julia  ;  she  has  come  back  to  me 
as  she  promised.  I  cannot  bear  to  think  that 
she  may  have  come  back  with  a  message  for  me, 
and  yet  I  could  not  hear  what  she  had  to  say. 
That  is  why  I  want  to  go  to  a  medium  to  see  if 
she  can  tell  me  what  Julia  wants  to  say  to  me." 

Having  met  and  corresponded  with  Miss  Ames 
before  she  died,  my  Father  was  intensely  interested 
to  know  that  she  had  actually  appeared  to  her 
friend,  and  said  he  would  be  delighted  to  introduce 
Miss  E.  to  Mrs.  Russell  Davies,  but  went  on  to  say, 
"  My  hand  has  recently  begun  to  write,  and  if  you 
do  not  object,  I  will  ask  Julia  if  she  will  use  my 
hand,  for  she  knew  me,  although  slightly,  and  it 


FAMILY  <jRori>,   1891. 


Russell  &  Sons. 


1892  179 

would,  at  any  rate,  do  no  harm  to  make  the 
experiment." 

Miss  E.  said  she  would  be  very  glad  if  he  would 
do  so. 

He  promised  to  try  the  following  morning,  and 
so  the  matter  was  left. 

"  On  the  Sunday  morning,"  he  writes,  "  I  was 
alone  in  my  bedroom.  I  sat  before  the  window, 
with  the  pencil  in  my  hand  and  said  : — 

"  '  Now  Miss  Ames,  if  you  are  about  and  care 
to  use  my  hand,  it  is  at  your  disposal  if  you  have 
anything  to  say  to  Miss  E.' 

"  Almost  immediately  my  hand  began  to 
write,  not  in  my  accustomed  handwriting,  and 
not  in  the  handwriting  of  either  Mrs.  D.  or 
Henry  L.  The  handwriting  was  clear  and 
distinct.  It  ran  thus  :— 

"  '  Julia  Ames — tell  Miss  E.  not  to  worry  so 
much  about  Lady  Henry  Somerset.  We  will 
take  care  of  Lady  Henry.' 

"  This  was  written  slowly  and  deliberately,  and 
I  watched  every  word  as  it  was  being  written. 
Then  I  said,  '  that  is  all  very  well,  but  how  do 
I  know  that  this  is  not  merely  the  unconscious 
action  of  my  own  subliminal  consciousness  ? 
How  do  1  know  it  is  you  ?  Can  you  give  me  a 
test  ? ' 

"  My  hand  wrote  :  '  Yes ;  ask  her  if  she  re- 
members what  I  said  to  her  when  last  we  came 
to  Mine  — ,'  then  the  writing  got  straggly,  and 
looked  like  '  ura.'  I  said  '  this  is  no  sense.' 
Then  my  hand  wrote  :  '  You  have  got  it  wrong.' 

N  2 


180  MY   FATHER 

1  said,  '  Then  write  the  letters  in  capitals,'  and 
my  hand  wrote  MINERVA.  AVhen  I  saw  it  was 
'  Minerva '  I  felt  sure  there  must  be  some 
mistake.  Then  it  occurred  to  me  that '  Minerva  ' 
might  be  the  name  of  some  American  town, 
and  I  asked  : — 

"  '  Is  Minerva  a  place  ? ' 

"My  hand  wrote,  'No.' 

" '  Is  it  a  person  ?  Do  you  mean  Minerva  the 
heathen  goddess  ? ' 

" '  Yes/ 

" '  But,'  I  said,  '  this  is  nonsense.  How  could 
you  and  Miss  E.  come  to  Minerva  ? ' 

"  Then  my  hand  wrote,  '  Never  mind ;  give 
that  message  to  Miss  E.,  she  will  understand. 
Julia  Ames.' 

"  I  felt  bothered.  It  was  a  serious  message  to 
deliver,  and  it  is  a  serious  thing  to  tell  anyone 
that  you  have  received  a  message  from  a  disem- 
bodied spirit  of  a  friend.  I  went  down  to  break- 
fast thinking,  perhaps  I  had  better  say  nothing 
to  Miss  E.  about  it,  as  the  test  was  so 
obviously  absurd. 

"  However  Miss  E.  pressed  me  to  give  her 
the  message.  I  read  it  to  her.  I  said  that  the 
message  might  be  all  right,  but  that  anybody 
could  have  written  that,  and  that  the  thing  that 
troubled  me  was  the  extreme  absurdity  of  ftie 
test.  She  pressed  me  to  tell  her.  I  hesitated, 
telling  her,  quite  truly,  that  1  thought  it  was  such 
utter  nonsense  that  it  made  the  whole  thing 
ridiculous.  At  last,  however,  still  apologising, 
I  read  the  message.— 


1892  181 

" 6  Ask  Miss  E.  if  she  remembers  what  I 
said  to  her  the  last  time  we  came  to  Minerva.' 

"  To  my  surprise  Miss  E.  looked  very  grave 
and  said  '  I  remember  it  quite  distinctly.' 

"  '  Remember  what  ?  '  I  said,  '  there  is  no  sense 
in  that.' 

" '  Yes,'  said  Miss  E.,  ( she  then  said  just 
the  same  about  Lady  Henry  as  your  hand  has 
written  this  morning.' 

" '  But,'  I  said,  6  how  could  you  come  to 
Minerva.  This  is  nonsense.' 

"  Then  Miss  E.  smiled.  *  Of  course,  I  forgot, 
you  do  not  know  anything  about  Minerva.  This 
is  how  it  came  about.  Miss  Ames  said,  before 
she  died,  '  The  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  has  come  into  existence  as  a  great  power 
in  America.  It  is  like  the  Minerva  who  sprang 
full  grown  from  the  temples  of  Jupiter,  and  she 
suggested  we  should  call  Miss  Willard  Minerva. 
She  bought  a  Cameo  brooch  of  Minerva  and 
gave  it  to  Miss  Willard  and  always  called  her 
'  Minerva,'  till  the  day  she  died.' 

"  «  Really  ? '  said  I. 

" '  Yes,'  said  Miss  E.,  '  and  the  last  time 
we  saw  Minerva  together  was  the  day  before 
Julia  died.  Miss  Willard  came  to  the  hospital 
to  bid  her  good-bye,  and  it  was  then  Julia  spoke 
to  me  about  not  worrying  about  Lady  Henry.' 

"  I  felt  utterly  taken  aback.  The  very  thing 
that  seemed  to  me  the  most  utterly  absurd  thus 
seemed  to  prove  the  identity  of  the  communi- 
cating intelligence. 

"  f  Well  then,'  I  said,  '  it  would  really  seem  as 


182  MY  FATHER 

if  Miss  Ames  had  written  with  my  hand.  That 
being  so,  I  had  better  sit  down  again  at  once, 
and  you  can  ask  any  question  that  you 
like.'  ' 

"No  sooner  said  than  done.  Miss  E.  asked 
several  questions,  which  were  answered  at 
once  by  my  hand,  but  they  were  not  of  an 
evidential  character.  After  going  on  for  some 
time,  I  said  : — 

" '  Excuse  me,  Miss  E. ;  this  may  be  very 
interesting  to  you,  but  it  is  nothing  to  me. 
Would  you  mind  if  1  were  to  ask  Julia  a 
question  ? ' 

"  Then  addressing  my  hand,  or  Julia,  if  she  were 
present,  I  said  : — 

"What  you  have  written  for  Miss  E.  may 
be  very  good  for  Miss  E.,  but  it  is  no  good 
for  me.  The  '  Minerva '  test  was  very  good,  I 
admit,  but  I  want  another  test.  Can  you  give 
me  one  ? ' 

"  My  hand  wrote  '  Yes.' 

"  '  Very  well,'  said  I.  '  I  want  you  to  refer  to 
some  incident  in  your  life ;  any  trivial  incident  will 
do,  which  could  not  possibly  be  known  to  me, 
but  which  Miss  E.  could  remember.  Can  you 
do  that?' 

"  Again  my  hand  wrote,  '  Yes.' 

"  *  Go  on,  then,'  said  I. 

"  My  hand  then  wrote,  '  Ask  Miss  E.  to 
remember,  when  we  were  together,  how  she  fell 
down,  and  hurt  her  spine.' 

"  '  Well,'  said  I,  as  I  spelt  out  the  words  which 
my  pen  had  just  traced,  <  that  certainly  is  a  good 


1892  183 

test  so  far  as  I  am  concerned.  I  never  knew  you 
did  hurt  your  spine.' 

"  But,  on  looking  across  to  Miss  E.,  1  saw 
that  her  face  was  blank  and  bewildered. 

"  *  Now/  said  I,  '  what  do  you  say  to  that  ? ' 

"  '  But,'  said  Miss  E.,  *  I  do  not  remember 
ever  having  hurt  my  spine.' 

"  '  Then,'  I  said,  addressing  my  hand,  '  there, 
you  see,  your  test  has  broken  down.  I  asked  you 
to  give  me  a  test,  and  you  have  given  one,  and 
Miss  E.  knows  nothing  at  all  about  it.  So  your 
test  has  failed.' 

"  '  No,'  wrote  my  hand, '  I  am  quite  right.  She 
has  forgotten.' 

"  '  Anybody  could  say  that,'  said  I.  <  That  is 
no  proof.  But  can  you  bring  it  to  her 
mind  ? ' 

"  '  Yes,  I  can.' 

"  '  Go  on,  then,'  said  1.  *  How  long  ago  was 
it?'  . 

"  '  Seven  years  ago.' 

"'Where  was  it?' 

"  '  At  Streaton,  Illinois.  We  were  going  home 
together  when  she  slipped  her  foot  on  a  kerb- 
stone, and  fell  down,  and  hurt  the  small  of  her 
back.' 

"  I  read  the  message  to  Miss  E.,  who  was 
sitting  the  other  side  of  the  table.  No  sooner 
had  I  finished  than  she  exclaimed. 

"  *  I  remember  now  quite  well.  We  were 
walking  home  from  the  office  together,  and  1 
slipped  my  foot  and  fell.  I  did  hurt  the  small  of 
my  back.  I  remember  it  perfectly.' 


184  MY   FATHER 

"  Then  Miss  Ames  startled  us  by  writing  the 
following : — l 

" '  I  want  you  to  tell  Lady  Henry  Somerset  not 
to  make  any  engagements  to  speak  in  England  in 
the  month  of  October  because  she  will  then  be 
in  Denver.' 

"  I  read  it  out  to  Miss  E.,  who  said, 
'You  are  wrong;  she  is  going  to  start  a  big 
temperance  campaign  and  she  cannot  go.' 

"  I  told  this  to  Lady  Henry,  and  she  said, 
6  This  is  impossible.  I  can't  go.  I  have  a  great 
deal  of  platform  work  to  do.  It  is  very  extra- 
ordinary. I  cannot  explain  it,  but  it  is  non- 
sense.' 

My  Father  returned  to  London,  and  Julia  con- 
tinued to  use  his  hand  to  send  messages  to  Miss 
E.  One  day  she  wrote  :  "  Lady  Henry  has  made 
an  appointment  to  speak  in  Manchester  in  October. 
She  won't  be  able  to,  because  she  will  be  in  Denver 
in  October." 

Miss  E.  corroborated  the  statement  as  to  the 
appointment,  and  said,  "  She  is  going  to  speak  in 
the  Free  Trade  Hall  and  hold  a  Temperance 
Alliance  Meeting." 

About  a  week  or  a  fortnight  passed  and  Julia 
wrote  again :  "  What  is  the  use  of  my  giving 
warnings  of  what  is  about  to  happen.  Lady  Henry 

1  "Lady  Henry  Somerset  has  very  kindly  given  me  per- 
mission to  mention  this  incident.  I  am  very  grateful  to  her  for 
allowing  me  to  do  so,  especially  as  she  did  not  agree  with  my 
Father's  views  on  Spiritualism.  To  quote  from  her  letter  "  my 
great  admiration  for  your  Father  never  made  me  for  one  moment 
agree  with  his  views  on  Spiritualism."  E.  W.  S. 


1892  185 

has  made  an  appointment  to  speak  in  Swansea — 
she  will  have  to  cancel  it." 

He  told  Miss  E.,  who  said,  "  Yes  it  is  quite 
true,  the  appointment  has  been  made." 

On  the  llth  September  Julia  wrote,  "I  need 
not  say  anything  more  about  Lady  Henry's  visit 
to  Denver,  that  is  settled  now,  and  you  will  no 
longer  doubt  that  I  am  making  a  guess  when  I 
tell  you  beforehand  what  is  coming  in  order  that 
you  may  prepare  for  it." 

Notwithstanding  this,  Miss  E.  persisted  that 
it  was  absolutely  impossible  for  Lady  Henry  to 
go  to  Denver.  But  within  less  than  a  month 
everything  came  about  exactly  as  Julia  had  fore- 
told. 

Miss  Willard's  mother  died,  and  Miss  Willard 
was  so  prostrate  with  grief  that  Lady  Henry 
went  back  with  her  to  Denver.  They  were  there 
in  October — and  all  engagements  were  cancelled 
exactly  as  Julia  had  foretold. 

"  I  asked  Julia,"  he  writes,  "  how  it  was  she 
could  foresee  things.  She  wrote  :  6  We  can 
only  foresee  what  is  given  to  us  to  see  ;  we 
cannot  see  all  that  we  want  to  see.  For  instance, 
I  cannot  foresee  all  that  you  are  going  to  do.  I 
can  foresee  some  things  that  are  going  to  happen 
to  you,  and  some  of  those  things  I  am  allowed 
to  tell  you.  There  are  other  things  I  am  not 
allowed  to  tell  you.  I  am  not  likely  to  mistake 
what  I  actually  see.' ' 

About  this  time  she  wrote  an  account  of  her 


186  MY   FATHER 

experience  after  dying.  After  describing  how  she 
found  herself  outside  her  body,  she  went  on  : — "  I 
waited  about  a  little,  then  the  door  opened ;  then 

Mrs. came  in.     She  was  very  sad." 

Then,  again,  she  said  that  she  was  taken  to  a 
place  where  she  had  to  meet  friends  who  had  passed 
on  before.  She  said :  "  When  we  got  there  I 
met  several  of  my  friends.  There  was,  among 
others.  .  ."  She  then  described  how  she  came  back 
to  see  Miss  E.  and  Miss  A.,  and  then  she  broke 
off  with  the  following  sentence  : — "  After  leaving 
Minerva  I  went  to  see  Mrs.  B." 

"  The  half-hour  was  up,"  he  continues,  "  and  1 
had  to  leave  for  church.  I  did  not  like  sending 
the  letter.  I  knew  nothing  of  the  names  that 
had  been  mentioned.  The  narrative  was  so 
extraordinary  that  I  wished  it  so  much  to  be  true, 
and  yet  I  feared  so  much  that  the  names  might 
be  all  wrong,  that  I  did  not  send  it  to  Miss 
E. 

"  My  hand  wrote  the  next  day  : — '  I  want 
you  to  send  my  letter  to  E.' 

"  I  said,  '  But  you  have  not  finished  it.'  It 
wrote  :  *  I  will  finish  it  another  day.' 

"  My  real  reason  for  not  sending  it  was  a 
dread  lest  the  names  might  be  all  wrong.  But 
my  hand  continuing  to  write,  pressed  me  to  send 
it.  I  posted  it,  and  waited  with  some  fear  and 
trembling  for  the  result.  On  the  29th  July, 
Miss  E.  came  to  the  office.  She  began  almost 
immediately :— 


1892  187 

"  '  Oh,  Mr.  Stead,  there  seems  to  be  no  doubt. 
It  must  be  Julia  who  is  writing.  You  do  not 
know  any  of  these  people.' 

"  *  What,'  said  I,  with  a  feeling  of  intense  relief, 
'  then  were  the  names  right  ? ' 

" '  Yes,'  said  Miss  E.,  *  all  the  names  were 
right.  1  know  all  of  them,  excepting  one.' 

"  '  Who  are  they  ? '  said  I. 

"'There  was  that  Mrs.  H.,  Mrs.  H.  was  the 
nurse  who  attended  Julia  when  dying.' 

"  '  Then  the  others.     Who  was  Amy  ? ' 

" '  Amy,'  said  Miss  E,,  '  was  Julia's  baby 
sister,  who  died  when  she  was  three  years  old.' 

"  '  And  Mrs.  W.  ? ' 

"  '  Mrs.  W.  was  her  married  sister,  who  died 
some  time  ago.  Mrs.  M.,  I  do  not  know  who 
she  was.  The  name  is  indistinct.  Mr.  W.  was 
her  brother-in-law.  He  also  is  dead.' 

"  I  then  felt  I  was  upon  firm  ground,  and  from 
that  time  for  several  months  Julia  wrote  every 
Sunday  with  my  hand  to  Miss  E.  In  these 
letters  Julia's  object  seems  to  have  been  similar 
to  that  of  any  person  living  at  a  distance,  who, 
having  now  established  her  identity,  wished  to 
communicate  as  a  friend  with  a  friend,  without 
troubling  herself  any  further  about  evidential 
tests. 

"  One  day  in  August  that  year,  Julia  suddenly 
wrote : — 

" '  Why  do  you  think  that  it  is  strange 
that  I  can  write  with  your  hand  ?  Any  one  can 
write  with  your  hand.'  I  asked  what  she  meant, 
and  she  answered,  '  Any  of  your  friends.'  '  On 


188  MY   FATHER 

this  earth? '  I  asked  incredulously.  She  wrote, 
'Try  it.'  'Need  they  know  about  it?'  'No.' 
'  Then,'  I  said,  '  there  will  be  an  end  of  all 
secrets  in  the  world.  She  wrote,  '  No ;  mind  is 
in  contact  with  mind  all  over  the  world.  Any 
one  to  whom  you  can  speak  if  you  are  within 
range  of  the  physical  senses  you  can  speak  to 
mentally  wherever  he  is,  because  the  mind 
is  not  trammelled  by  the  limitations  of 
matter.'  She  explained  that  the  real  self,  the 
Ego,  had  both  mind  and  body  as  its  instruments, 
by  which  it  could  communicate  with  the 
outside  world.  Both  were  instruments,  either 
could  be  used,  but  each  was  not  always 
informed  of  the  use  which  had  been  made  of  the 
other.  That  is  to  say,  it  was  perfectly  possible 
for  the  Ego  to  use  your  mind  to  direct  my  hand, 
without  finding  it  necessary  to  inform  your 
physical  consciousness  that  any  such  communica- 
tion had  taken  place.  But  the  mind  would 
no  more  communicate  a  secret  which  the  Ego 
did  not  wish  to  be  known,  than  the  tongue 
would  be  guilty  of  such  an  indiscretion,  for 
tongue  and  mind  are  alike  the  servants  of  the 
real  self. 

"  I  was  rather  incredulous,  but  I  began 
experimenting  with  a  friend  in  London  who 
was  sympathetic.  I  found  that  it  succeeded 
to  a  marvel.  That  is  to  say,  I  found  that 
my  friend  had  no  difficulty  whatever  in  using 
my  hand  to  communicate  information  or  the 
expression  of  the  mood  of  the  moment.  When 
my  friend,  whom  I  will  call  '  A,'  was  writing, 


1892  189 

I  said  to  him  in  the  middle  of  the  communi- 
cation, 'Are  you  really  writing,  or  is  it  only 
my  subliminal  consciousness  ? '  My  hand  wrote, 
6 1  will  try  and  prove  to  you  that  I  am  really 
writing.  There  is  an  object  in  my  hand  just 
now  which  I  will  bring  to  your  office.  I  am 
sitting  at  my  table.  It  is  a  small  present 
that  I  want  to  make  to  you.  It  is  an  old 
thistle.' 

"  <  What ! '  I  said,  <  a  thistle  ?  ' 

"  Yes,  an  old  thistle ;  it  played  a  part  in  my 
life  that  made  it  dear  to  me.  I  will  give  it  to 
you  to-morrow.  I  will  explain  to  you  when 
I  give  it.  I  hope  you  will  accept  it.' 

"  Next  day,  when  my  friend  came,  I  asked 
him  if  he  had  brought  a  present  for  me.  He 
said  no,  he  had  not.  He  had  thought  of 
bringing  one,  but  he  had  left  it  at  home.  I 
asked  him  what  it  was.  He  said  it  was  such 
an  absurd  thing  he  did  not  like  to  mention  it. 
When  I  pressed  him,  he  said  it  was  a  piece  of 
scented  soap  !  I  was  considerably  disgusted  at 
this  apparent  failure,  and  told  him  why.  He 
said  at  once,  '  That  is  very  curious.  Everything 
happened  as  you  have  written  there,  and  it  is  a 
thistle,  and  an  old  thistle.  But  it  is  a  thistle 
that  is  stamped  on  the  piece  of  soap.  I  will 
bring  it  to  you  next  time  I  see  you.  It  did 
play  a  part  in  my  life,'  which  he  then  proceeded 
to  explain.  I  have  the  soap  now  in  my 
possession.  It  is  stamped  with  a  thistle. 

"  He  wrote  with  my  hand,  from  time  to  time 
describing  his  movements.  The  first  dispatch 


190  MY   FATHER 

which  is  worth  quoting  was  one  I  received  on 
Saturday,  September  18th.  It  will  be  noticed  that 
there  are  inaccuracies,  but  they  are  very  slight. 

"  I  went  to  Waterloo  Station  by  the  12.0  train 
and  got  to  Hampton  Court  about  1.0.  When 
I  got  out  I  went  to  an  hotel  and  had  dinner. 
It  cost  nearly  3s.  After  dinner  I  went  to 
the  picture  galleries.  I  was  very  much  pleased 
with  the  painting  of  many  of  the  ceilings  ;  I 
was  also  interested  in  most  of  the  portraits  by 
Lely.  After  seeing  the  galleries  I  went  out 
into  the  grounds.  How  beautiful  they  are ! 
1  saw  the  great  vine,  that  lovely  English  garden, 
the  avenue  of  elms,  the  canal,  the  great  water 
sheet,  the  three  views,  the  fountain,  the  gold 
fishes,  and  then  I  lost  myself  in  the  maze.  1 
got  home  about  nine  o'clock.  It  cost  me 
altogether  about  6s. 

"  On  communicating  this  to  (  A,'  he  said  that 
everything  was  right  with  two  exceptions.  He 
went  down  by  the  2.0  train  and  not  by  the  12.0, 
and  got  to  Hampton  Court  about  3.0.  The 
dinner  cost  him  2s.  lid.,  which  was  'nearly  3s.,' 
and  the  total  cost  of  the  expedition  was  6s.  3d. 
The  places  were  visited  in  the  order  in  which 
they  were  named.  The  only  mistake  was  the 
train  by  which  '  A '  went  to  Hampton  Court. 

"  From  that  time  forward  any  incident  was 
reported  as  a  matter  of  course  by  him.  Occasion- 
ally an  incident  would  be  slightly  mis-stated,  but, 
broadly  speaking,  out  of  100  statements  90  were 
as  correctly  written  by  my  hand  as  if  '  A  '  had 
written  them  himself. 


1892  191 

"  For  several  months  past  I  have  received, 
almost  every  day,  communications  from  my  friend 
when  anything  interested  him,  or  he  felt  he  had 
anything  to  communicate  with  me.  Often  they 
are  but  brief  memoranda  regarding  a  visit  to  a 
church  or  a  business  appointment,  or  a  visit  to 
some  friend.  Frequently  mention  is  made  of 
books  he  has  been  reading,  and  the  usual  informa- 
tion given  as  to  the  state  of  health,  of  good 
spirits  or  depression,  which  one  friend  might  send 
to  another." 

Referring  to  his  capacity  to  communicate  with 
different  persons  Father  says  :— 

"  I  would  like  to  state  in  answer  to  obvious 
criticism  that  I  do  not  profess  to  give  here  records 
of  all  the  unsuccessful  experiments  which  I  have 
made  in  order  to  ascertain  whether  I  could  or 
could  not  communicate  with  different  persons. 
I  may  say  broadly  that  I  have  found  the  capacity 
of  my  friends  to  communicate  with  me  to  differ 
immensely ;  some  seem  to  be  utterly  incapable 
of  communicating  with  me  in  this  fashion. 
Whether  it  is  my  fault,  or  whether  it  is  theirs,  I 
do  not  know,  but  when  I  have  asked  them  to  com- 
municate my  hand  will  always  write  as  if  from 
them — it  will  answer  wrongly  or  at  random ; 
sometimes  it  will  write  in  the  name  of  the  friend 
to  whom  1  appeal,  messages  precise  and  detailed, 
which  on  being  referred  to  the  person  from 
whom  they  are  supposed  to  emanate,  are  dis- 
covered to  have  no  foundation. 

"  Nothing  is  more  puzzling  than  this  decep- 


192  MY   FATHER 

tion,  a  cross  current  which  continually  baffles 
the  enquirer.  Sometimes  a  perfectly  accurate 
communication  will  be  received  from  a  friend  at 
a  distance,  followed  by  another,  ostensibly  from 
the  same  person,  which  is  totally  incorrect,  after 
which  a  third  will  be  received  that  is  perfectly 
true ;  all  of  the  three  being  matters  upon  which 
I  had  no  means  of  information.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  are  persons  who  write  constantly 
with  my  hand  and  rarely  make  mistakes,  and 
when  they  do,  it  is  usually  found,  on  inquiry,  that 
the  mistake  was  due  to  some  thought  or  inten- 
tion in  their  own  minds  which  existed  only  as  a 
thought  or  intention,  but  which  was  reproduced 
by  my  hand  as  if  it  were  an  accomplished  fact. 
It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  I  do  not  claim  for 
the  human  telephone — if  I  may  so  describe  my 
automatic  handwriting — anything  approaching 
to  the  mechanical  accuracy  of  the  telephone,  as 
we  have  it  now,  in  operation ;  but  the  subject  is 
so  new,  the  laws  governing  the  operations  of  the 
human  telephone  are  so  little  investigated,  that 
it  would  be  unreasonable  to  expect  greater 
progress  than  has  already  been  made. 

"If  a  savage  at  one  end  of  Timbuctoo  were 
able  to  get  switched  on  to  a  friend  at  the  other 
end,  and  exchange  with  him  one  intelligible 
sentence,  they  would  be  hopeless  idiots  if  they 
did  not  persevere  in  their  experiments,  knowing 
that  if  the  telephone  transmitted  a  single  mes- 
sage correctly  once,  it  had  within  it  the  potency 
of  correct  transmission  ;  all  that  remained  to  be 
done  would  be  to  eliminate  elements  of  error  one 


1892  193 

after  the  other  until  the  secret  of  its  working 
was  fully  mastered." 

He  carried  on  experiments  in  Telepathic 
Automatic  Handwriting  intermittently  to  the  day 
of  his  death,  with  varying  success.  With  some 
people  he  had  marvellous  results,  others  were 
absolute  failures. 

Shortly  before  his  death  he  wrote  : 

"'My  own  experiences  justify  me  in  feeling 
confident  that,  given  a  little  more  time  and 
patience,  and  the  study  of  the  laws  that  govern 
this  system  of  thought-transference,  it  will  be 
possible  for  us  in  time  to  communicate  with  each 
other  as  accurately  without  the  aid  of  any 
instrument  as  we  do  now  with  the  aid  of  the 
telephone  or  the  wireless  telegraph.  I  am  an 
extremely  busy  man,  and  it  is  a  constant  marvel 
to  me  that  I  should  ever  be  able  to  attain  the 
requisite  degree  of  passivity  to  secure  accurate 
messages  ;  but,  notwithstanding  all  the  rush  and 
whirl  of  my  daily  life,  I  have  moments  of  detach- 
ment. If  they  were  more  frequent,  1  should 
make  better  progress. 

"  I  sometimes  say  that  I  shall  never  be  able  to 
really  solve  this  mystery  of  telepathy,  until  I 
have  the  good  fortune  to  undergo  another  term 
of  imprisonment.  In  the  seclusion  of  a  prison- 
cell  I  think  that  I  might  find  out  many  things 
impossible  to  me  in  the  hurly-burly  of  the  busy 
world." 


o 


CHAPTER  XVII 


DRAMATIC  INCIDENT" 


"  In  the  discovery  of  Auto-telepathic  Writing  I  have  stumbled 
upon  a  fact,  the  ultimate  consequences  of  which  it  is  impossible 
to  see."— W.  T.  STEAD.  "Borderland." 

So  impressed  was  my  Father  with  the  result  of 
his  investigations  that  he  introduced  some  of  his 
experiences  into  his  next  Christmas  Annual,  entitled 
"From  the  Old  World  to  the  New,"  in  the  Preface 
to  which  he  says  : — 

"The  World's  Fair  at  Chicago  will  be  the 
great  event  of  1893.  All  the  world  and  his 
wife  will  be  going  to  the  Exhibition.  Few 
questions  will  be  more  generally  discussed  this 
Christmas  at  family  gatherings  than  the  attraction 
of  the  Chicago  trip. 

"  Therefore  the  Christmas  number  of  the 
Review  of  Reviews  this  year  is  devoted,  from 
first  page  to  last  page,  to  telling  the  British 
public  about  Chicago  and  its  Exhibition,  and  the 
way  there. 

"Last  year  our  Christmas  Number,  dealing 
with  the  shadowy  underworld,  achieved  for 


A   DRAMATIC   INCIDENT          195 

6  Real  Ghosts  '  an  unprecedented  success.  This 
year  we  make  an  equally  unprecedented  de- 
parture from  the  conventionalities  of  journalistic 
Christmasery,  but  we  deal,  not  with  the  truth 
about  the  dim,  obscure  world  of  spirit,  but  with 
the  latest  embodiment  of  the  genius,  the  enter- 
prise and  the  labour  of  man  in  the  material 
realms.  Yet  there  is  a  living  link  between  the 
two. 

"  Chicago  Exhibition,  Chicago  itself — which 
is  greater  than  the  Exhibition,  and  the  great 
Republic  which  welcomes  all  nations  to  the 
great  festival  of  nations — these  are  but  the 
latest  temporary  materialisation  and  realistic 
development  of  the  great  idea  which  possessed 
Columbus  when,  four  hundred  years  ago,  he 
steered  his  tiny  caravel  across  the  Unknown  Sea 
and  re-discovered  the  New  World.  In  our  last 
Christmas  number  we  collected  some  of  the 
shadowy  fragments  of  evidence  as  to  the  reality  and 
accessibility  of  the  Invisible  World,  which,  how- 
ever incomplete  and  unsatisfactory,  were  more 
numerous  and  more  conclusive  than  the  dis- 
jointed rumours  and  abstract  reasonings  which 
led  the  Genoese  navigator  to  take  that  voyage, 
the  fourth  centenary  of  which  is  being  celebrated 
at  Chicago.  Last  year  we  indicated  the  New 
World  that  man  has  still  to  explore.  This  year 
we  record  the  latest  results  of  the  supreme 
triumph  wrested  by  the  faith  and  courage  of  a 
solitary  adventurer  from  the  great  mystery  which 
had  been  guarded  for  ages  by  the  ignorance,  the 
timidity,  and  the  superstition  of  mankind. 

o  2 


196  MY   FATHER 

"  In  telling  the  story  of  the  voyage  of  a  party 
of  English  tourists  from  Liverpool  to  Chicago, 
the  writer  has  endeavoured  to  combine  two 
somewhat  incongruous  elements — the  love  story 
of  the  Christmas  Annual  and  the  information 
of  a  guide-book.  Side  by  side  with  these,  in 
the  main  features  of  '  From  the  Old  World  to 
the  New,'  are  incorporated  two  other  elements 
viz.,  a  more  or  less  dramatic  representation  of 
conclusions  arrived  at  after  twelve  months' 
experimental  study  of  psychical  phenomena ; 
and  an  exposition  of  the  immense  political 
possibilities  that  are  latent  in  this  World's 
Fair." 

There  is  one  incident  in  this  book  of  1892  which 
is  rendered  far  more  interesting  now  because  of  the 
manner  of  his  own  passing,  so  I  give  it  in  detail 
here.  It  is  the  description  of  how  one  man  was 
saved  from  an  iceberg.  The  ship  on  which  he  was 
travelling  struck  an  iceberg  and  went  down ;  all 
perished  save  this  one  man.  How  he  was  saved 
shall  be  told  later  in  my  Father's  own  words. 

The  incident  is  purely  fictitious,  and  supposed  to 
take  place  on  the  Majestic — and  it  is  a  strange 
coincidence  that  her  captain  at  that  time  was 
Captain  Smith.  The  Captain  Smith  who,  with  the 
writer  of  the  incident,  was  to  meet  his  death- 
through  an  iceberg — as  Captain  of  the  ill-fated 
Titanic.  His  portrait  even  is  published  in  the 
book,  but  the  following  footnote  is  appended 

"  I  need  not  say  that  the  whole  of  this  story 
is  purely  imaginary  ;  although  I  illustrate  the 


A   DRAMATIC   INCIDENT          197 

account  of  the  voyage  with  a  portrait  of  the  real 
captain  of  the  Majestic,  he  must  not  be  in  any 
way  identified  with  the  captain  of  this  story. 
W.  T.  S." 

The  incident  is  copied  directly  from  the  book, 
and  given  here  without  introduction  to  the  charac- 
ters— as  apart  from  the  part  they  play  in  this  they 
are  of  no  interest  here. 

Place — mid-ocean  between  England  and  America. 
Time — afternoon. 

"Mr.  Compton  was  abruptly  aroused  from  his 
reverie  by  a  direct  appeal  from  Mrs.  Irwin. 

"  *  If  you  have  ten  minutes  to  spare,  Mr. 
Compton,  I  will  be  glad  to  have  a  word  with 
you  by  yourself.' 

" '  Certainly,  Madam,  will  you  come  to  the 
library  ?  It  is  sure  to  be  empty  just  now,  and 
we  can  speak  at  leisure/ 

"  They  soon  found  themselves  ensconced  in  a 
corner  of  the  library.  There  were  only  one  or 
two  ladies  present,  and  shortly  afterwards  these 
left  Compton  and  Mrs.  Irwin  alone. 

"  '  I  would  not  have  ventured  to  trouble  you,' 
said  Mrs.  Irwin,  '  but  I  know  that  you  are  no 
stranger  to  occult  things.  If  I  had  not  seen 
that  in  the  face  of  you,  I  should  not  have 
ventured  to  speak.' 

" '  Yes,  yes,'  said  Compton,  somewhat  im- 
patiently, '  but  what  has  that  to  do  with  it  ? ' 

"  '  It  has  everthing  to  do  with  it,  Sir,'  said  she, 
'  because,  if  you  did  not  understand,  it  would  be 
no  use  trying  to  explain.  I  must  tell  you  that  I 


198  MY  FATHER 

come  of  one  of  the  oldest  families  in  Ireland. 
We  have  the  Banshee,  of  course,  but  what  is 
more  to  the  purpose,  I  have  occasionally  the  gift 
of  second  sight.  Now,  last  night.' — 

"  Compton,  who  had  listened  with  hardly 
concealed  impatience,  suddenly  manifested  eager 
interest. 

"  *  My  dear  Mrs.  Irwin,'  he  exclaimed,  *  why  did 
you  not  tell  me  this  before  ?  Nothing  interests 
me  so  much  as  to  come  upon  those  rare  but 
peculiarly  gifted  persons  who  have  inherited,  or 
acquired  by  some  strange  gift  of  the  gods,  the 
privilege — often  a  sombre  and  terrible  privilege— 
of  seeing  into  futurity,  but  you  were  saying  ?  '- 

"  '  I  was  saying,'  said  Mrs.  Irwin,  ( that  last 
night,  as  I  was  lying  asleep  in  my  berth,  I  was 
awakened  by  a  sudden  cry,  as  of  men  in  mortal 
peril,  and  I  roused  myself  to  listen,  and  there 
before  my  eyes,  as  plain  as  you  are  sitting  there, 
1  saw  a  sailing  ship  among  the  icebergs.  She 
had  been  stove  in  by  the  ice,  and  was  fast 
sinking.  The  crew  were  crying  piteously  for 
help  ;  it  was  their  voices  that  roused  me.  Some 
of  them  had  climbed  upon  the  ice ;  others  were 
on  the  sinking  ship  ;  which  was  drifting  away  as 
she  sank.  Even  as  I  looked  she  settled  rapidly 
by  the  bow,  and  went  down  with  a  plunge.  The 
waters  bubbled  and  foamed.  I  could  see  the 
heads  of  a  few  swimmers  in  the  eddy.  One  after 
another  they  sank  and  I  saw  them  no  more.  I 
saw  that  there  were  six  men  and  a  boy  on  the 
iceberg.  Then,  in  a  moment,  the  whole  scene 
vanished,  and  I  was  alone  in  my  berth,  with  the 


A    DRAMATIC   INCIDENT          199 

wailing  cry  of  the  drowning  sailors  still  ringing 
in  my  ears.' 

"  '  Did  you  note  the  appearance  of  any  of  the 
survivors  ? '  said  he,  anxiously. 

" '  As  plainly  as  I  am  looking  at  you,'  she 
replied.  'I  noticed  especially  one  man,  very 
tall — over  six  feet,  I  should  say — who  wore  a 
curious  Scotch  plaid  around  his  shoulders  and  a 
Scotch  cap  on  his  head.  He  had  a  rough  red 
beard,  and  one  eye  was  either  blind  or  closed 
up.' 

"  '  And  did  you  see  the  name  of  the  ship  before 
it  foundered  ? ' 

" '  Certainly  I  did ;  it  was  plain  to  see  as  it 
went  down  headforemost.  I  read  the  name  on 
the  stern.  It  was  the  Ann  and  Jane,  of 
Montrose.' 

"  Compton  rose  from  his  chair  and  took  a  turn 
or  two  in  deep  thought.  Then  he  stopped,  and 
said  : — 

"  Mrs.  Irwin,  you  have  trusted  me,  I  will 
trust  you.  What  you  have  said  has  decided  me, 
or  rather,  has  given  me  hope  that  we  may  be  able 
to  induce  the  captain  of  the  Majestic  to  rescue 
these  unfortunates,  one  of  whom  is  a  friend  of 
mine.' 

"  '  But  did  you  know  about  it  before  I  spoke  ? ' 
asked  Mrs.  Irwin. 

" '  I  need  not  explain  to  you,'  said  Compton, 
not  heeding  the  interruption,  'for  you  under- 
stand that  there  is  no  impossibility  in  the 
instantaneous  communication  of  intelligence 
from  any  distance,  to  others  who  have  what 


200  MY   FATHER 

some  have  described  as  the  sixth  sense.  To 
some  it  comes  in  the  form  of  clairvoyance,  to 
others  as  clairaudience,  while  to  a  third  class, 
among  whom  1  count  myself,  it  comes  in  the 
shape  of  what  is  called  automatic  writing.  I 
have  many  friends  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  who 
also  have  this  gift,  and  we  use  it  constantly,  to 
the  almost  entire  disuse  of  the  telegraph.  At 
least  once  every  day,  each  of  us  is  under  a  pledge 
to  place  his  hand  at  the  disposal  of  any  of  the 
associated  friends  who  may  wish  urgently  to 
communicate  with  him.  This  morning  at  noon, 
when  I  placed  my  hand  with  the  pen  on  my  dis- 
patch book,  it  wrote  off,  with  feverish  rapidity,  a 
message  which  I  will  now  read  to  you  : 

" '  John  Thomas.  Tuesday  morning,  four 
o'clock.  The  Ann  and  Jane.,  Montrose,  struck 
on  an  iceberg  in  the  fog  in  North  Atlantic,  and 
almost  immediately  foundered.  Six  men  and  a 
boy  succeeded  in  reaching  the  ice  alive.  All 
others  were  drowned.  For  God's  sake,  rescue 
us  speedily  ;  otherwise  death  is  certain  from  cold 
and  hunger.  We  are  close  to  the  line  of  out- 
ward steamers.-1- JOHN  THOMAS.' 

" '  The  signature,  you  see,'  said  Compton,  '  is 
the  same  as  that  appended  to  the  last  letter  I 
received  from  him,  which  I  hunted  up  after  1 
had  received  this  message.  1  have,  therefore,  no 
doubt  that  '  John  Thomas '  with  five  other  men 
and  a  boy  are  exposed  to  a  lingering  death  on  the 
iceberg  some  hundred  miles  ahead.' 

"  *  But,'  said  Mrs.  Irwin,  '  what  can  we  do  ? ' 

"'That,'   replied  Compton,  'is  my  difficulty. 


A   DRAMATIC   INCIDENT          201 

To  have  gone  to  the  captain  with  this  message, 
without  any  confirmation  but  my  word  would 
probably  have  exposed  me  to  certain  ridicule,  and 
might  have  led  the  captain  to  steer  still  further 
south.  Now,  however,  that  you  have  had  the 
message,  I  will  hesitate  no  longer.' ' 

"  Without  more  ado,  he  sent  a  note  to  the 
captain  begging  to  be  allowed  to  communicate 
with  him  on  a  matter  of  urgent  and  immediate 
importance,  involving  questions  of  life  and  death. 

"  The  messenger  presently  returned  saying  the 
captain  would  see  him,  and  Mr.  Compton 
followed  him  to  the  captain's  cabin.  It  is  but 
seldom  that  any  passenger  ventures  to  intrude 
into  that  sanctum.  But  Mr.  Compton  was  not 
an  ordinary  passenger.  He  had  often  crossed  the 
Atlantic  in  vessels  under  the  command  of  the 
present  captain.  He  was  known  to  be  a  man  of 
power,  of  influence,  and  of  wealth.  More  than 
that,  he  had,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  given 
invaluable  information,  procured  no  one  knew 
how,  or  where,  which  had  enabled  the  captain  to 
avoid  imminent  dangers  into  which  he  was 
steaming  at  full  speed.  He  was,  therefore, 
assured  of  a  respectful  hearing,  even  from  the 
autocrat  of  the  Majestic  on  the  verge  of  an  ice  fog. 

"  *  Now  Mr.  Compton,'  said  the  captain,  '  what 
is  it  you  wish  to  say  to  me?  I  have  only  a 
few  minutes  to  spare.  We  shall  have  to  steer 
southward  to  avoid  the  ice  floe  which  is  drift- 
ing across  our  usual  course.' 

" '  I  want  you,'  said  Mr.  Compton  impertur- 
bably,  'to  continue  your  usual  course  in  order 


202  MY  FATHER 

to  pick  up  six  men  and  a  boy,  who  are  stranded, 
on  an  iceberg  from  the  ship  Ann  and  Jane,  of 
Montrose,  which  foundered  at  four  o'clock  this 
morning,  after  collision  with  the  ice.' 

"  The  captain  stared.  '  Really  Mr.  Compton, 
how  do  you  know  that?  It  is  impossible  for 
any  one  to  know  it.' 

"  Mr.  Compton  replied.  '  There  is  the  dis- 
patch from  one  of  my  friends,  John  Thomas, 
who  was  on  the  ship,  and  is  now  on  the  ice- 
berg, received  by  me  in  his  own  handwriting 
at  noon  this  day.' 

'•The  captain  took  the  paper  with  an  uneasy 
expression  of  countenance. 

" '  Entering  the  fog,  sir,'  said  an  officer, 
putting  his  head  into  the  cabin. 

" '  Slacken  speed,'  said  the  captain.  '  I  shall 
be  out  in  a  moment.' 

"  He  carefully  read  and  re-read  the  paper, 
and  then  said  : — 

"  '  Well,  really,  if  you  were  not  Mr.  Compton, 
1  should  consider  you  a  lunatic.  What  possible 
reliance  can  be  placed  upon  such  a  statement  ? ' 

" '  1  received  this,'  replied  Compton  signifi- 
cantly, 'in  the  same  way  that  I  received  the 
message  of  1889,  which  enabled  you  to .' 

" '  I  remember,'  said  the  captain,  '  otherwise 
I  should  not  be  listening  to  you  now.' 

" '  But  this  story  has  not  come  without  con- 
firmation ' ;  and  then  Compton  repeated  Mrs. 
Irwin's  clairvoyant  vision. 

"'What  do  I  care  for  these  old  women's 
stories  ? '  said  the  captain.  But  even  if  they  were 


A   DRAMATIC    INCIDENT          203 

true,  what  then  ?  I  have  nearly  2,000  pas- 
sengers and  crew,  all  told,  on  board  the  Majestic. 
I  dare  not  risk  them  and  the  ship,  hunting  for 
half-a-dozen  castaways  on  an  iceberg  in  the 
North  Atlantic.' 

" '  But,'  said  Compton,  '  if  you  are  convinced 
that  the  men  are  there,  dare  you  leave  them  to 
their  fate?' 

"  '  But  I  am  not  convinced.  They  may  have 
died  ere  now,  even  if  they  were  ever  there  at  all/ 

" '  Might  I  ask  you  to  give  me  pencil  and 
paper,'  said  Compton. 

"  The  captain  handed  him  what  he  wanted. 
Compton  at  once  grasped  the  pencil  and  placed 
it  on  the  paper.  Almost  immediately  it 
wrote : — 

" '  John  Thomas.  Iceberg.  Three  o'clock. 
At  one  o'clock  the  iceberg  parted  under  our  feet, 
three  men  and  a  boy  were  carried  away.  Three 
still  remain,  frost-bitten,  without  food  or  fire. 
We  shall  not  be  able  to  survive  the  night. 
When  the  Ann  and  Jane  foundered  we  were  on 
the  outward  liners'  route,  45  by  45,  on  the 
extreme  southern  edge  of  the  ice-floe.  Since 
then,  it  has  rather  receded.  For  God's  sake,  do 
not  desert  us. — JOHN  THOMAS.' 

"The  captain  stared  at  the  curious  writing, 
which  was  not  Compton's,  and  then  stared  at 
Compton. 

"  The  latter  merely  said,  '  How  far  are  we  off 
the  position  mentioned  ? ' 

"  The  captain  looked  at  the  chart. 

"  *  We  are  steering  by  our  present  altered  course 


204  MY   FATHER 

directly  upon  the  spot  where  he  says  the  berg  is 
floating.  If  I  believed  your  message  I  would 
steer  still  more  to  the  southward,  to  give  the  ice 
a  clear  berth.  It  is  no  joke  shaving  round  an  ice- 
berg in  such  a  fog  as  this.  But  I  do  not  believe 
your  message,  and  I  will  not  alter  the  course  of 
the  Majestic  by  one  point,  for  all  the  witches  and 
wizards  that  ever  lived/ 

" '  Captain,'  said  Compton,  '  your  niece  is  on 
board,  I  believe.' 

" '  Yes,'  said  the  captain.  '  But  what  in  the 
world  has  she  to  do  with  it  ? ' 

" '  If  you  will  allow  her  to  come  here,  and 
permit  me  to  send  for  my  friend,  the  professor,  I 
think  we  shall  be  able  to  convince  you  that  the 
sailors  are  waiting  deliverance.' 

"  The  captian  rang  the  bell.  '  Bring  my  niece 
here,  instantly,'  he  said,  '  and  Professor  Glogoul. 
'  Thank  heaven,'  he  added,  the  fog  is  so  dense,  no 
one  will  be  able  to  see  them  come,  or  else  they 
would  think — and  think  rightly — that  I  had 
taken  leave  of  my  wits.' 

"  In  a  minute  or  two  the  niece  and  professor 
had  both  arrived. 

"  '  Captain,'  said  Compton,  '  will  you  let  your 
niece  sit  down  ?  The  professor  hypnotised  her 
in  a  previous  voyage,  and  cured  her  of  sea-sickness. 
He  can  cast  her  into  hypnotic  sleep  with  her 
consent,  by  merely  making  a  pass  over  her  face 
with  his  hand.' 

"The  captain  growled.  'Do  what  you  like, 
only  make  haste.  If  it  were  anyone  but  Mr. 
Compton,'  he  muttered  under  his  breath,  '  if  it 


A   DRAMATIC   INCIDENT          205 

were  anyone  but  Mr.  Compton,  I  should  very 
soon  have  cleared  the  cabin.' 

"  The  captain's  niece  had  hardly  taken  her 
seat  when  the  professor's  passes  threw  her  into 
a  hypnotic  sleep.  A  few  more  passes  and  the 
professor  said  she  was  in  the  clairvoyant  state. 

"  '  What  is  it  that  you  want  ? '  he  asked. 

" '  Tell  her,'  said  Compton,  '  to  go  ahead  of 
the  ship  in  the  exact  course  she  is  now  steering, 
and  tell  us  what  she  sees.' 

"  The  professor  repeated  the  request.  Almost 
immediately  the  captain's  niece  began  to  shiver 
and  shudder,  then  she  spoke— 

" '  I  go  on  for  half-an-hour,  then  for  an  hour ;  it 
gets  colder  and  colder.  I  see  ice,  not  icebergs, 
but  floating  ice.  I  go  through  this  floating  ice 
for  an  hour,  for  two  hours,  then  the  fog  gets 
thinner  and  thinner,  it  almost  disappears.  I  see 
icebergs,  they  shine  beautifully  in  the  sunlight. 
There  are  many  of  them  stretching  for  miles  and 
miles,  as  far  as  I  can  see.  What  a  noise  there  is 
when  they  break  and  capsize.' 

"  <  Do  you  see  any  ship  or  any  thing  ?  asked 
the  professor. 

"  '  No,  I  see  nothing,  only  icebergs.  I  go  on 
and  on  for  another  hour.  Then  1  see  on  an  ice- 
berg, near  the  foot,  someone  making  signals.  I 
come  nearer,  I  see  him  plainly.  He  is  a  tall  man 
with  one  eye  and  red  hair.  He  is  walking  up 
and  down.  Beside  him  there  is  one  man  sitting, 
and  another  man  who  seems  to  be  dead.  It  seems 
to  be  the  edge  of  the  iceberg.  There  is  clear 
water  beyond. 


206  MY   FATHER 

"  '  That  will  do,'  said  Compton. 

"  The  professor  blew  lightly  on  the  girl's  face. 

"She  opened  her  eyes  and  stood  up,  looking 
round  with  a  dazed  expression. 

"  '  Well,'  said  Compton  to  the  captain,  '  are 
you  convinced  ? ' 

"  '  Convinced,'  said  the  captain.  '  It's  all 
confounded  nonsense.  Out  with  you !  If  you 
ever  had  to  steer  the  Majestic  through  an  ice 
fog  in  the  mid- Atlantic  you  would  know  better 
than  to  fool  away  the  captain's  time  by  such  a 
pack  of  tomfoolery.' 

"  The  niece  and  the  professor  left  the  cabin. 

"  As  Compton  turned  to  go,  he  said,  '  Captain, 
that  tall,  one-eyed  man  on  the  iceberg  is  one 
of  my  friends.  You  will  keep  on  your  course, 
as  you  say — I  desire  nothing  better.  Will 
you  promise  me,  if  only  for  the  sake  of  the 
past,  that  if  you  strike  drift-ice  in  a  hour  and  a 
half,  and  if  you  emerge  from  the  fog  two  hours 
later  on  the  edge  of  the  floe  of  icebergs,  you 
will  keep  a  look-out  and  save  John  Thomas, 
if  you  can  ? ' 

" '  If,  if,  if,'  said  the  captain  contemptuously. 
'  Oh,  yes,  if  all  these  things  happen,  I  will 
promise,  never  fear,  I  can  safely  promise  that ! ' 

"As  Compton  left  the  cabin  the  captain 
remarked — 

"  *  They  say  it  is  always  the  cleverest  men 
who  have  got  the  biggest  bee  in  their  bonnet, 
and  upon  my  word  I  begin  to  believe  it.' 

"  Meanwhile  Mr.  Compton  was  in  his  cabin 
watching  the  movements  of  his  hand,  as  a 


A   DRAMATIC   INCIDENT          207 

telegraphist  watches  the  movements  of  the 
needle.  It  wrote  a  good  deal.  Messages  were 
written  out,  and  signed  by  telegraphic  friends  in 
Melbourne,  London  and  Chicago.  Then  came 
the  writing  as  before. 

"'John  Thomas.  Iceberg,  4.0.  Are  you 
coming  ?  We  cannot  hold  out  much  longer. 
One  of  the  men  is  too  frost-bitten  to  move. 
The  fog  is  clearing. — JOHN  THOMAS.' 

" « John  Thomas.  Iceberg,  4.30.  The  fog 
has  gone.  The  sun  is  shining.  We  are  on  the 
outer  edge  of  the  iceberg  field.  If  you  skirt 
it,  you  cannot  fail  to  see  us — unless  the  iceberg 
falls  over  again.  The  frost-bitten  man  is  dead. 
We  can  hold  out  till  sunset  —  no  later. — 
JOHN  THOMAS.' 

"  Again  more  messages  from  other  corres- 
pondents, which  his  hand  wrote  out  without  his 
eye  following  the  lines.  At  half-past  five  came 
the  writing: — 

" '  John    Thomas. — Iceberg,    5.30.     I    cannot 
now    see    the    time.      My    companion    can   no 
longer  keep  his  feet.     My  strength  is  failing.— 
JOHN  THOMAS.' 

"  Compton  could  stand  it  no  longer.  Closing 
his  dispatch  book,  he  hurried  upon  deck.  He 
saw  and  heard  the  floe-ice,  and  it  seemed  to  him 
that  the  fog  was  not  so  dense.  He  saw  the 
captain  on  the  bridge.  He  went  forward  where 
the  look-out  was  keeping  a  sharp  look  out  on 
deck.  Suddenly  he  heard  the  cry  :— 

"  '  Icebergs  on  the  starboard.' 

"  The   captain   shouted    something   inaudible 


208  MY   FATHER 

in  the  crash  of  the  ice,  the  engine  bell  rang, 
the  engines  slowed  down  their  speed,  the 
steamer  steered  a  trifle  more  to  the  southward, 
but  still  kept  pounding  her  way  onward.  He 
could  only  see  the  ghastly  shadows  looming 
darkly  to  the  northward.  If  his  friend  was  on 
one  of  these  phantasmal  masses,  what  hope 
was  there  ?  Sick  at  heart  he  sought  out 
Mrs.  Irwin. 

"  '  Should  you  know  the  iceberg  which  you  saw 
in  your  vision  if  you  saw  it  again.5 

"  '  Certainly,  I  would,'  she  replied.  '  It  was 
very  irregular  with  huge  overhanging  pinnacles. 
I  could  swear  to  it  among  a  thousand.' 

"  '  Stand  here,  then,  near  the  deck  look-out  and 
keep  your  eye  fixed  on  the  north.  It  may  be 
that  the  mist  will  rise.' 

"  He  went  back  to  his  cabin.  The  professor 
was  awaiting  him. 

"'Well? 'he  said. 

" '  It  is  not  well,'  groaned  Compton.  As  he 
opened  his  dispatch-book  to  see  if  any  fresh 
message  was  waiting  to  be  taken  down,  his  hand 
wandered  a  little  over  the  paper.  Then  it 
began  :— 

"  '  John  Thomas.  Iceberg.  My  companion  is 
dead.  I  am  alone  on  the  iceberg.  I  can  no 
longer  stand  or  walk.  In  another  hour  all  will 
be  over. — JOHN  THOMAS.' 

" '  Halloo  ! '  said  the  professor,  '  the  fog  has 
lifted ! '  Compton  rushed  from  the  cabin,  and 
tore  madly  to  the  bridge,  where  the  captain  was 
standing. 


A   DRAMATIC   INCIDENT          209 

" '  Captain,'   he   cried,    '  remember   your  pro 
mise ! ' 

"And,  as  he  spoke,  he  pointed  to  a  great 
flotilla  of  icebergs.  Behind  the  steamer  the  fog 
was  as  thick  as  a  blanket.  Before  her  was  open 
water.  On  the  north  stretched  the  dazzling 
array  of  icebergs,  ever  shifting  and  moving. 
Now  and  again  a  great  berg  would  capsize  with 
reverberant  roar.  The  captain  was  cowed. 
There  was  something  uncanny  and  awesome 
about  the  incident.  He  had  seen  icebergs  before, 
but  he  had  seldom  had  such  good  luck  as  to  pass 
clear  by  the  southern  edge  of  the  floe,  and  then 
to  have  clear  sky. 

"  He  sent  for  Mr.  Compton  to  the  bridge. 

"'Captain,'  said  Compton,  before  the  other 
had  time  to  speak,  'remember  your  promise. 
Here  we  are  in  open  water  outside  the  fog,  just 
off  the  southern  edge  of  the  icebergs.  Will  you 
save  John  Thomas  ? ' 

"  The  captain  shrugged  his  shoulders.  '  How 
do  I  know  where  he  is?  Am  I  to  use  the 
Majestic  with  2,000  souls  on  board  to  go  hunting 
for  John  Thomas  among  that  wilderness  of  ice- 
bergs ?  Ask  yourself,  is  it  reasonable  ? ' 

"Compton  replied,  'If  I  am  able  to  point 
out  the  exact  iceberg  where  John  Thomas  lies, 
will  you  stop  and  send  a  boat  to  bring  him 
aboard  ? ' 

" '  Yes,'  said  the  captain,  '  I  could  not  well 
refuse  that.' 

"  The  Majestic  was  now  driving  ahead  at  full 
speed.  All  the  passengers  were  on  deck  enjoying 

p 


210  MY   FATHER 

the  novel  arid  magnificent  spectacle.  Suddenly 
a  cry  was  heard  from  the  bows.  It  was  a  woman's 
voice,  shrill  and  piercing. 

" '  There  it  is  !  That  is  it !  That  is  the  ice- 
berg!' 

"  A  rush  was  made  forward.  Mrs.  Irwin 
was  taken  to  the  captain.  Then  she  said,  '  We 
are  abreast  of  it,  and  will  be  past  it  in  a  minute. 
Oh,  stop  her,  for  the  Lord's  mercy  !  You  are  not 
going  to  leave  three  men  to  die  ! ' 

"  The  captain  took  no  notice,  but  keenly 
scrutinised  through  his  glasses  the  peculiar 
shaped  iceberg  which  she  indicated.  '  'Tis 
curious,'  he  muttered,  '  I  seem  to  see  a  speck  of 
something  on  the  base  of  that  berg.' 

"  The  bell  in  the  engine  room  was  sounded, 
the  engines  stopped,  and  the  great  steamer  for 
the  first  time  since  leaving  Queenstown,  came  to 
a  standstill. 

"  A  boat  was  put  off,  and  John  Thomas  was 
saved." 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

BORDERLAND 

"  The  one  great  necessity  for  the  production  of  an  ideal  city  is 
faith."—  W.  T.  STEAD. 

"  Forward  is  our  Watchword  ;  ever  forward,  let  what  will 
betide."—  W.  T.  STEAD  in  Borderland- 

"  To  myself  I  seem  to  have  been  as  a  child  playing  on  the  sea 
shore,  while  the  immense  ocean  of  truth  lay  unexplored  before 
me."  —  ISAAC  NEWTON. 

IN  1893  he  crossed  the  Atlantic  for  the  first  time 
and  visited  the  Chicago  Exhibition.  During  this 
visit  he  wrote  "  If  Christ  came  to  Chicago."  He 
was  inspired  to  write  this  book  by  Russell  Lowell's 
little  poem  "  The  Parable."  Begun  with  the  simple 
object  of  recalling  the  Man  Christ  Jesus,  it  developed 
into  an  attempt  to  illustrate  how  a  living  faith  in 
the  citizen  Christ  would  lead  directly  to  the  civic 
and  social  regeneration  of  Chicago,  or  any  other 
great  city. 

On  his  return  from  America,  feeling  that  some- 
thing more  definite  ought  to  be  attempted  to  bring 
the  study  of  the  phenomena  of  the  Borderland  more 
practically  before  the  eyes  of  the  public,  and  that  an 
effort  should  be  made  to  democratise  psychic  study, 
and  to  remove  some  of  the  superstitions  regarding 
it,  he  founded  "  Borderland  "  a  Psychic  Quarterly. 


211 


212  MY   FATHER 

"  We  seek  the  scientific  verification  of  that 
Life  and  Immortality  which  were  brought  to 
light  nineteen  hundred  years  ago,"  he  wrote  in 
1893,  in  the  first  number. 

"  Life — for  at  present  we  are  but  half  alive— 
that  we  may  have  life,  and  that  we  may  have  it 
more  abundantly,  that  we  may  understand 
something  more  of  the  marvellous  capacities 
latent  in  ourselves,  that  we  may  secure  for 
everyday  use  the  almost  inconceivable  powers 
possessed  by  our  subjective  selves,  of  which  we 
have  stray  hints  in  the  phenomena  of  hypnotism 
and  dreams— that  is  one  object. 

"  Immortality — or  at  least  the  persistance  of 
the  personality  of  man  after  the  dissolution  of 
this  vesture  of  decay,  that  is  the  second  object. 
It  is  indeed  a  corollary  of  the  first.  For  if  Life 
is  manifested  independently  of  the  body,  even 
while  the  body  exists,  it  cannot  be  supposed  to 
terminate  merely  because  the  organs  of  sense 
are  no  longer  in  use. 

.  "  Unless  all  religions  are  based  upon  a  lie,  that 
is  to  say,  unless  the  most  spiritually  enlightened 
of  the  great  leaders  of  our  race,  whose  know- 
ledge of  the  secret  springs  of  the  nature  of  man 
is  attested  by  the  enthusiastic  devotion  of 
the  noblest  of  mankind  in  all  eyes,  there  is  a 
world  beyond  the  impalpable  veil,  a  world  from 
which,  if  these  Founders  were  not  deceived,  they 
received  the  inspiration  and  the  impulse  which 
gave  them  their  influence  among  men. 

"  '  If  a  man  dies  shall  he  live  again  ? '  That  is 
the  question.  We  seek  to  solve  it,  believing 


BORDERLAND  213 

that  the  true  answer  is  that  he  no  more  dies 
when  he  lays  aside  his  body  than  he  dies  when 
he  puts  off  his  overcoat. 

"  But  belief  is  one  thing.  Certitude  is  another. 
What  we  have  to  do  is  to  prove  what  is  the  fact 
so  clearly  that,  as  Mr.  Minot  Savage  says,  'to 
doubt  it  would  be  an  impeachment  of  man's 
intelligence.' 

"  It  may  be  that  we  may  fail  in  proving  what 
we  hope  to  be  able  to  demonstrate.  But  the 
attempt  may  not  be  less  fruitful  on  that  account. 

"  The  publication  of  Borderland  is  at  least  a 
practical  illustration  that  some  of  us  are  deter- 
mined to  make  the  attempt." 

Borderland  ran  its  course  for  four  years,  and  the 
last  number  appeared  in  Oct.,  1897.  The  reasons 
for  its  cessation  were  mostly  of  a  personal  nature, 
and  also  because  he  felt  that  having  taken  for  four 
years  a  quarterly  survey  of  the  field  and  brought  it 
in  this  way  to  a  greater  extent  before  the  public, 
the  most  important  thing  for  him  now  was  to 
devote  what  time  he  had  to  spare  to  the  Border- 
land, to  original  investigation.  So  he  took  what 
he  hoped  would  be  a  temporary  leave  of  his  readers, 
hoping  to  meet  them  again  after  a  year  or  two 
with  results  which  would  justify  the  temporary 
severance. 

No  further  number,  however,  of  Borderland  was 
destined  to  be  published,  but  the  result  of  his 
investigations  was,  in  the  course  of  years,  to  be  the 
founding  of  Julia's  Bureau. 


214  MY   FATHER 

Looking  back  over  the  period,  he  says  : — 

"  The  four  volumes  of  Borderland  are  inter- 
esting and  useful  contributions  to  psychic  study. 
No  doubt  faults  can  be  found  with  their  con- 
tents, no  matter  what  stand-point  we  take.  No 
1  one  can  find  more  faults  in  them  than  myself, 
but  take  them  as  a  whole,  they  are  intensely 
interesting.  To  use  a  familiar  phrase,  'they 
palpitate  with  actuality,'  and  no  one  can  cursorily 
read  their  contents  without  feeling  they  are  face 
to  face  with  a  multitude  of  honest,  earnest 
puzzle-headed  persons,  who  are  constantly 
familiar  with  some  of  the  most  extraordinary 
phenomena  known  to  mortal  men.' 

"  When  we  come  to  consider  the  actual  survey 
and  exploration  of  the  Borderland,  there  is  reason 
for  a  certain  chastened  satisfaction.  Progress 
has  been  made,  but  not  so  much  as  we  hoped  for. 

"  So  far  as  I  personally  am  concerned,  I  can  say 
that  the  chief  lesson  I  have  learned  has  been  a 
better  realisation  of  the  extreme  complexity  of 
the  so-called  supernatural  phenomena,  and  the 
absolute  impossibility  of  explaining  them  by  any 
single  hypothesis.  The  more  we  know  of  the 
mysterious  realm  that  surrounds  us,  the  less 
ready  are  we  to  dogmatise.  So  marvellous  are 
the  things  we  know  to  be  true,  so  utterly  at 
variance  are  they  with  everything  that  is 
ordinarily  accepted  as  true  by  the  ordinary 
world,  that  there  is  hardly  anything  that  can  be 
regarded  as  antecedently  impossible.  Hence, 
more  than  ever  do  I  feel  it  necessary  to  hold  the 
judgment  in  suspense. 


BORDERLAND  215 

"One  thing  only  am  I  more  absolutely  con- 
vinced of  than  ever,  and  that  is  that  the  ordinary 
limited  materialism  of  man,  and  of  the  world 
on  which  he  lives,  is  absolutely  inadequate  to 
account  for  what  we  know  to  be  happening  all 
the  time.  Whatever  else  may  be  true,  the  faith 
in  which  the  majority  of  people  live  and  die, 
which  is  based  upon  the  assumption  that  there  is 
nothing  but  matter,  is  absolutely  and  demon- 
strably  false." 

Julia,  who  had  frequently  written  messages 
through  Father's  hand  to  the  readers  of  Borderland, 
gave  this  parting  word  of  advice  and  comfort : — 

"  My  dearest  Friend  : — My  heart  is  somewhat 
sad  within  me  at  the  thought  that  this  may  be 
the  last  time  for  some  months  that  I  shall  have 
the  much-prized  opportunity  of  communicating 
with  my  friends,  whom  I  have  so  often  addressed 
through  the  pages  of  Borderland.  It  is  now 
nearly  four  years  since  I  began  to  write  for 
them,  and  I  have  had  much  blessed  evidence  as 
to  the  help  which  my  letters  have  given  to  many 
who  had  otherwise  almost  despaired. 

"  Now  that  for  the  present,  and  only  for  the 
present,  my  letters  must  cease,  I  feel  more  than 
ever  impressed  with  the  importance  of  insisting 
once  more,  more  strongly  than  ever  before,  on 
the  great  truth  that  God  is  Love,  and  that  all 
who  love  really  and  truly  are  in  God  and  He  in 
them.  I  have  said  this  many  times.  But  you 
do  not  seem  to  realise  how  literally  true  it  is, 
and  how  absurd  it  will  seem  to  you  when  you 
come  over  here  and  see  how  God  has  been  kept 


216  MY   FATHER 

out  of  your  lives  because  of  the  lack  of  love  in 
your  hearts.  There  is  nothing  in  all  the  world 
so  true,  so  vital,  so  universal  as  this.  Love  and 
God  are  the  same,  and  when,  from  any  cause, 
you  hate  or  do  not  love,  to  that  extent  you  shut 
God  out  from  your  life. 

"  If  I  had  only  one  message  to  give,  this  is  the 
message — Love. " 

Soon  after  this,  in  the  same  year,  he  republished 
Julia's  letters  in  a  little  book  entitled  "  Letters  from 
Julia."  "  The  one  book,"  he  said,  "  which  I  have 
published  which  will  be  remembered  long  after  I 
am  dead." 

It  was  six  times  reprinted  in  the  first  eight  years, 
and  republished  in  1905,  under  the  title  of  "After 
Death,  or  Letters  from  Julia."  In  the  preface  to 
this  edition  he  wrote  :— 

"  Eight  years  ago  I  collected  together  and 
published  the  series  of  messages  contained  in  this 
volume  under  the  title,  '  Letters  from  Julia,  or 
Light  from  the  Borderland,  received  by  automatic 
writing  from  one  who  has  gone  before.'  Since 
then  the  little  volume  has  been  six  times  reprinted 
in  England,  and  at  least  one  translation  has 
appeared  abroad.  I  have  received  so  many 
grateful  letters  from  persons  in  all  parts  of  the 
world,  who,  after  sorrowing  for  their  dead  as 
those  that  have  no  hope,  felt  on  reading  this  book 
as  if  their  lost  ones  were  in  very  truth  restored  to 
life,  that  I  can  no  longer  refuse  to  issue  it  to  a 
wider  public. 

"As  to  the  salient  truth  asserted  in  these 
messages,  the  return  of  one  from  beyond  the 


BORDERLAND  217 

grave  to  inform  those  who  remain  behind  of  the 
life  beyond,  and  of  the  light  which  the  other 
world  sheds  upon  this,  I  can  only  say  that  I 
believe  it  to  be  true.  Those  who  reply  by 
quoting  Shakespeare's  saying  about  the  bourne 
from  which  no  traveller  returns,  may  be  disposed 
of  by  the  remark  that  Shakespeare  himself  was 
of  a  different  opinion.  If  that  saying  be  true, 
the  Christian  religion  is  based  on  falsehood,  and 
not  the  Christian  religion  alone.  The  reminder, 
recently  afforded,  that  to  the  Japanese  the  con- 
stant and  conscious  presence  of  the  spirits  of  the 
departed  is  as  much  a  reality  of  their  everyday, 
work-a-day  existence  as  their  artillery  and  iron- 
clads, may  do  something  to  reconcile  some  of 
our  superior  latter-day  Christians  to  a  reassertion 
of  one  of  the  fundamental  truths  of  the  faith 
in  which  they  profess  to  believe.  When  my 
friend  describes  her  own  experiences  after  death, 
1  accept  her  statements  as  I  accepted  her  descrip- 
tion of  what  she  saw  at  Ober  Ammergau 
the  year  before  she  died.  She  was  always  a 
truthful  woman,  and  I  don't  think  that  the 
change  called  death  was  likely  to  impair  her 
veracity.  At  the  same  time,  I  do  not  for  a 
moment  believe  that  her  experiences  are  to  be 
accepted  as  those  common  to  all  departed.  *  In 
my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions/  and  each 
soul  goes  to  its  own  place. 

"  Apart  from  what  is  peculiar  or  personal  to 
herself,  two  or  three  things  common  to  all 
appear  to  be  clearly  asserted  in  these  messages. 
The  first  is  that  death  makes  no  break  in  the 
continuity  of  mental  consciousness.  Our  person- 


218  MY   FATHER 

ality  persists  with  so  vivid  a  sense  of  its  own 
identity  that  there  is  often  at  first  some  difficulty 
in  realising  that  death  has  taken  place.  The 
second  is  that  the  period  of  growth  and  probation 
is  no  more  complete  at  death  than  it  is  on  leav- 
ing school,  finishing  an  apprenticeship,  or  retiring 
from  business.  The  environment  is  changed, 
but  the  principle  of  growth,  of  evolution,  of 
endless  progress  toward  ideal  perfection,  con- 
tinues to  be  the  law  of  life.  The  third  is  that 
it  is  not  only  possible  but  lawful,  and  not  only 
lawful  but  an  absolute  duty  on  the  part  of 
mortals  to  renew  and  keep  up  a  loving  inter- 
course with  the  loved  ones  who  have  gone  before. 
Such  an  imperious  duty  imposed  by  the  loving 
heart  is  not  to  be  thrust  on  one  side  by  quoting 
inapplicable  texts,  by  which  the  Hebrew  law- 
giver, three  thousand  years  ago,  sought  to  deter 
the  children  of  Israel  from  resorting  to  familiar 
spirits,  and  the  black  magic  of  primitive  times. 
As  earnestly  as  any  writer  in  the  Pentateuch,  I 
raise  my  voice  against  any  tampering  with  the 
unseen  and  potent  spirits  of  evil  which  lie  in 
wait  for  the  soul.  But  our  friends  do  not 
become  evil  demons  merely  because  they  have 
changed  their  bodily  raiment.  Of  this  let  readers 
of  these  messages  from  beyond  the  grave  form 
their  own  opinion." 

This  little  book  has  been  translated  into  German, 
French,  Russian,  Greek,  Icelandic,  Swedish  and 
Hindustani,  and  has  brought  comfort  to  thousands 
all  over  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

"  DOUBLES " 

"  The  vision  was  not  a  mere  passing  glimpse  of  a  commonplace 
figure  in  a  crowd." — W.  T.  STEAD. 

"!T  was  the  'Double,'  he  wrote  in  Borderland, 
1896,  'who  introduced  me  to  the  study  of  things.' 
Physical  Readers  of  '  Real  Ghost  Stories '  may 
remember  that  I  began  the  collection  by  recount- 
ing how  a  friend  of  mine,  then  living  down  near 
Hind  head,  claimed  to  possess  the  faculty  of  pro- 
jecting her  phantasmal  Double,  sometimes 
voluntarily,  and  sometimes  without  any  conscious 
exercise  of  volition.  It  was  this  which  fascinated 
me,  and  led  me  to  the  course  of  study  of  which 
the  present  number  of  Borderland  is  merely 
the  latest  fruit.  Hence  I  always  feel  kindly  to 
the  Double.  None  of  the  other  phenomena  of 
the  Borderland  are  at  once  so  fascinating  and  so 
mysterious,  so  well  authenticated,  and  so  utterly 
inexplicable.  It  is  by  the  aid  of  the  Double,  and 
by  automatic  handwriting  with  living  persons, 
that  there  seems  to  me  the  best  chance  of  solving 
the  abysmal  mystery  of  personality.  Ghosts  of 


219 


220  MY  FATHER 

the  dead  are  important,  no  doubt,  but  they  are 
from  the  Other  Side,  and  often  seem  to  experience 
great  difficulty  in  translating  their  thoughts  into 
the  language  of  earth,  and  not  less  difficulty  in 
adjusting  their  fitful  apparitions  to  the  necessities 
of  the  psychical  researcher.  But  with  the  Double 
it  is  different,  for  there  is  no  chasm  to  be  bridged 
in  its  case  between  the  living  and  the  dead,  and 
with  automatic  communications  from  the  living, 
when  all  allowance  has  been  made  for  disturbing 
influences,  cross  currents,  and  the  intruding 
influence  of  the  medium's  consciousness,  it  affords 
by  far  the  best  clue  to  the  mysterious,  subcon- 
scious region  in  which  most  of  the  phenomena  of 
the  Borderland  either  arise  or  come  into  our 
knowledge." 

He  himself  only  saw  two  "  doubles  "  which  he 
proved  satisfactorily  to  himself  as  having  been 
authentic  cases — he  gives  the  details  at  length  in 
Borderland.  One  was  the  case  of  Mrs.  F.,  whom  he 
saw  as  he  was  walking  down  Norfolk  Street  to  his 
office  at  Mowbray  House.  She  was  walking 
briskly  in  front  of  him,  apparently  going  to  the 
office. 

"'Mrs.  F."  he  says,  "  had  a  marked  individuality 
carried  to  extreme  originality.  She  could  not  be 
easily  mistaken  for  anyone  else  ;  there  is  only  one 
Mrs.  F.  in  London. 

"  I  was  considerably  behind  with  my  corre- 
spondence. '  Bother  the  woman '  was  my  un- 
spoken thought,  '  I'll  just  run  up  to  her  and  tell 
her  I  cannot  see  her  to-day,  I  am  too  busy,  and 


DOUBLES  221 

my  correspondence  is  waiting.'  I  half-quickened 
my  step,  when  I  checked  myself.  She  had  been 
ill.  It  would  seem  unkind  now  she  had  travelled 
all  the  way  down  to  the  office  to  refuse  to  see  her. 
So  I  thought,  '  I  will  catch  up  to  her  at  the  foot 
of  the  stairs  and  explain  that  I  can  only  see  her 
for  a  minute.'  All  this  time  she  was  walking 
about  ten  paces  ahead  of  me.  I  saw  her  as 
distinctly  as  ever  I  saw  anyone  in  my  life. 
There  was  absolutely  no  possibility  of  my  having 
mistaken  her  for  another  woman. 

"  *  My  word,  my  lady,'  I  thought  to  myself, 
as  I  saw  her  quick  springing  step  up  the  steps, 
and  noted  the  smart  business-like  toss  of  her 
chin  in  the  air,  '  you  have  recovered  and  no 
mistake.  You  are  more  like  a  girl  of  eighteen 
than  an  invalid  of  over  thirty." 

When  he  entered  the  office  he  found  only  the 
lift  boy  and  no  trace  of  Mrs.  F.,  whom  the  boy 
told  him  had  been  there  but  had  left  half  an  hour 
before,  and  he  was  certain  she  had  not  been  in 
since.  Having  searched  in  vain  all  over  the 
office  for  Mrs.  F.,  he  wrote  her  the  following 
letter  :  — 


"November  24th,  1892. 

DEAR  MRS.  F., 

I  am  sorry  to  have  missed  you  this  afternoon, 
and  I  am  the  more  so  because  your  double 
seems  to  have  come  back  when  you  had  left. 
I  returned  about  twenty-five  minutes  past  three, 
and  as  I  got  half  way  down  Norfolk  Street  I 


222  MY   FATHER 

saw  you  in  front  of  me.  I  quickened  my  steps  to 
catch  up  to  you,  but  you  got  into  the  door  before 
I  could  get  within  more  than  about  thirty  or 
forty  yards.  You  went  into  the  place  with  your 
usual  quick  step,  and  I  thought  to  myself, 
'Now,  when  I  see  Mrs.  F.  I  will  chaff  her 
about  being  so  extremely  well  that  she  can 
walk  as  briskly  as  ever  she  did  when  she  was  a 
young  girl.'  When  I  got  in  I  expected  to 
find  you  just  going  upstairs,  or  standing  by 
the  lift  door,  but  you  were  not  at  either  of 
these  places,  so  I  took  the  lift,  expecting  to  see 
you  when  I  reached  the  top,  or  that  I  would 
catch  you  on  the  stairhead,  and,  behold,  I  found 
that  you  had  gone.  Now,  are  you  conscious 
of  having  come  back,  double  or  otherwise,  or 
am  I  beginning  to  be  Clairvoyant,  or  not  ? " 

"  To  this  I  received,"  he  says,  "  by  return  of 
post,  a  reply  that  at  the  time  mentioned  she  was 
opposite  Holborn  Town  Hall,  about  a  mile  from 
the  office,  for  she  looked  up  at  the  clock  and 
noted  that  it  was  just  half-past  three.  She 
was  then  thinking  of  a  parcel  she  had  left  in 
my  office,  and  was  wishing  she  could  go  back  to 
get  it. 

"Collateral  evidence  as  to  my  making  en- 
quiries of  the  office  boys,  of  my  stenographer, 
and  other  persons  in  the  office,  can  be  adduced, 
but  I  don't  think  my  readers  will  deem  it 
necessary.  The  case  rests  upon  the  evidence  of 
one  percipient,  viz.,  myself,  and  the  testimony 
of  the  person  seen  as  to  her  whereabouts  at  the 
moment  of  the  vision  of  the  double.  If  either 
Mrs.  F.  or  I  is  lying,  or  under  an  hallucination, 


DOUBLES  223 

then     this    story    must     be     dismissed.       But 
otherwise  ?  " 

The  second  case  occurred  on  September  29th, 
1895,  when  he  saw  the  Double  of  a  friend,  a  Mrs.  A., 
at  the  evening  service  at  the  Congregational  Church 
at  Wimbledon — not  only  he  himself,  but  I  saw 
her,  as  well  as  the  clergyman  and  the  deacons.  She 
was  at  the  time  ill  in  bed  in  her  own  house  at  a  distant 
part  of  London.  She  entered  after  the  service  had 
commenced  and  took  a  seat  near  the  front,  at  about 
five  minutes  past  seven  and  remained  till  half-past 
eight.  She  was  offered  a  book  and  refused  it. 
She  left  before  the  congregation.  Father,  seeing 
her  leave,  hurried  down  from  the  gallery,  where 
he  was  sitting,  to  speak  to  her,  and  ask  her  why 
it  was  she  had  come  so  far  when  she  was  so  ill, 
and  to  take  her  to  the  train.  When  he  got 
out  he  could  find  her  nowhere, — went  to  the 
station  and  looked  everywhere,  but  could  find  no 
trace  of  her.  Wednesday  morning  he  received  a 
letter  from  her  about  some  MSS.,  and  telling  how 
ill  she  had  been  on  Sunday,  but  no  mention  of 
coming  to  Chapel,  so  he  cycled  over  after  lunch 
to  make  enquiries  and  found  her  very  ill  and  weak, 
and  heard  to  his  surprise  she  had  not  been  out  all 
day  on  Sunday.  In  the  afternoon  she  had  been  ill 
with  spasms.  The  Doctor  came  to  see  her  between 
five  and  six  and  ordered  her  to  go  to  bed ;  her  ser- 
vants and  a  relative  saw  her  in  bed  between  six  and 
seven,  and  again  saw  her  asleep  about  nine,  when 
she  awoke  and  finished  writing  a  letter  to  Father, 
telling  of  her  illness.  He  collected  all  the  evidence 


224  MY   FATHER 

carefully,  and  proved  that  it  was  impossible  for 
Mrs.  A.  to  have  gone  from  her  house  in  any  normal 
way  to  such  a  distant  part  of  London,  and  returned 
to  her  house  and  bed  between  the  times  she  was 
seen  there.  He  proved  absolutely  that  if  it  were 
not  a  case  of  a  Double,  it  could  not  possibly  be 
accounted  for  by  any  of  the  usual  explanations. 
"Dr.  Alfred  Russel  Wallace,"  he  says,  "replied 
that  there  is  another  explanation  which,  although 
not  usual,  may  nevertheless  be  the  key  to  the 
mystery.  He  suggests  that  Mrs.  A.  may  have 
been  instantaneously  levitated  across  London  in 
proper  person  as  was  Mrs.  Guppy."  However  it 
was  done,  it  had  been  proved  to  Father  that  it  was 
possible  for  a  person  lying  ill  in  one  place  to  appear 
several  miles  distant  in  another  place,  apparently 
as  material  and  physical  as  those  who  saw  her. 

The  Double  had  a  great  fascination  for  him,  and 
he  was  always  keenly  anxious  to  find  out  more 
and  more  of  the  possibilities  in  that  direction. 

Several  people  say  they  have  seen  my  Father's 
Double,  but  it  was  never  possible  to  get  the  evidence 
of  more  than  the  one  person  for  each  particular  time, 
and  although  he  had  every  reason  to  believe  in  the 
good  faith  of  these  persons,  and  believed  they  had 
in  verity  seen  his  Double,  he  was  never  able  to 
prove  it  conclusively. 

My  Father  was  always  ready  and  anxious  to 
give  anyone  a  hearing  who  claimed  to  have  any 
manifestations  of  the  sixth  sense — and  a  fair 
chance  of  proving  their  powers.  He  looked  on 
mediumship  as  a  precious  gift. 


DOUBLES  225 

"Mediums,"  he  once  wrote,  "are  among  the 
most  valuable  members  of  the  community. 
They  are  like  a  seeing  man  in  the  world  of  the 
blind.  They  need  to  be  sought  for  as  hidden 
treasure,  and  preserved  and  cared  for  as  the  only 
instruments  by  which  it  is  possible  successfully 
to  undertake  the  exploration  of  the  other  world. 
Instead  of  which,  they  are,  as  a  rule,  sneered  at, 
derided  and  treated  as  if  they  were  knaves  and 
liars.  Sometimes  they  are  thrown  into  gaol,  and 
everything,  in  short,  that  collective  society  can 
do  to  discourage  the  development  of  medium- 
ship  is  being  done  and  has  been  done  for  many 
years.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  good  mediums  are  few  and  far 
between.  I  hope,  however,  that  with  increasing 
intelligence,  the  growth  of  the  scientific  spirit 
and  the  decay  of  superstition  in  Spiritualism, 
those  individuals  who  are  so  much  more  highly 
evolved  than  the  rest  of  their  fellows  as  to  be 
able  to  see  what  is  invisible  and  inaudible  to 
the  majority  of  men,  may  be  discovered  in 
increasing  numbers." 

Clairvoyants,  Crystal  Gazers,  Trance  Mediums, 
Palmists,  and  every  sort  and  description  of  person 
having  any  claim  to  the  power  to  penetrate  the 
veil,  would  be  sure  of  patient  hearing  if  they  came 
to  my  Father.  For  was  it  not  possible  among  the 
many  that  he  might  find  one  who  would  be  a 
perfect  instrument  of  communication — and  then 
there  would  be  no  "  stained  glass,"  no  colouring 
culled  in  passing  through.  The  records  of  his  in- 
vestigations prove  how  sincere  he  was  in  the  search. 

Q 


CHAPTER  XX 

CHILDREN   AND    PEACE 

ALL  this  time  he  was  busily  adding  on  all  sides 
to  the  record  of  work  attempted  and  work  achieved. 

He  had  a  great  love  for  children,  and  was  never 
happier  than  when  surrounded  by  them.  In  1895 
he  published  "  The  Books  for  the  Bairns  "  in  order 
to  enable  the  children  to  have  Classics,  Fairy  Tales, 
and  indeed  the  whole  gamut  of  childish  literature 
for  one  penny  a  month.  He  delighted  to  fill  his 
house  at  Hayling  with  as  many  children  as  possible 
during  the  summer  months.  One  of  the  favourite 
books  of  the  series  is  an  account  he  wrote  of  a 
summer  at  Holly-Bush  entitled  "  The  Jolly  Family 
at  the  Seaside."  But  it  was  not  only  of  the  smaller 
bairns  that  he  thought ;  for  the  older  bairns  he 
published  the  "  Masterpiece  Library,"  which  con- 
sisted of  Penny  Poets,  Penny  Novels  and  Penny 
Prose  Classics.  And  about  this  time  he  founded 
the  "  Scholars'  International  Correspondence," 
which  may  well  be  looked  upon  as  a  step  further 
in  his  work  for  Peace,  for  by  thus  enabling  the 
children  of  different  countries  to  know  each  other, 

226 


WITH  THE  CHILDREN  AT  HAYLIXG  ISLAND. 


CHILDREN   AND   PEACE  227 

he  broke  down  many  of  the  prejudices  that  help 
to  make  for  war. 

It    was    in    1898    that   he   first   appeared   con- 
spicuously as  an  advocate  of  peace.     He  writes  : 

"  In  the  autumn  of  1898  the  Emperor  of 
Russia  issued  his  famous  Peace  Rescript,  which 
seemed  to  me  to  afford  an  unexampled  oppor- 
tunity for  rousing  popular  attention  to  the  need 
for  arresting  the  portentous  growth  of  militarism. 
I  made  a  tour  of  Europe,  visiting  most  of  the 
capitals  in  order  to  ascertain  what  was  thought 
of  the  proposal  and  to  pave  the  way  for  an 
International  Agitation  in  favour  of  the  Tsar's 
scheme.  In  order  to  satisfy  myself  as  to  the 
ideas  of  the  Emperor,  I  went  to  Livadia,  where 
I  was  twice  received  by  Nicholas  II.,  and  dis- 
cussed the  subject  with  him  at  length.  I  was 
satisfied  as  to  the  sincerity  of  his  desire  to  cope 
with  the  evils  from  which  civilisation  is  suffering. 
I  returned  to  London,  and  proclaimed  with  the 
hearty  support  of  all  the  friends  of  peace,  all 
the  organised  Peace  Societies,  and  all  the  friends 
of  peace  in  every  country,  a  great  crusade  in 
favour  of  the  Tsar's  proposal.  The  so-called 
6  Peace  Crusade '  was  launched  in  London  at 
a  great  meeting  in  St.  James's  Hall,  and  was 
prosecuted  more  or  less  vigorously  in  concert 
with  the  active  assistance  of  friends  of  peace  in 
America,  France,  Germany,  Belgium,  Holland, 
Denmark,  and  Norway  arid  Sweden,  although 
in  those  latter  countries  the  agitation  owed 
little  if  anything  to  the  impetus  from  London. 

Q  2 


228  MY   FATHER 

The  friends  of  peace  in  Scandinavia  were  so  well 
organised  that  memorials  and  meetings  went  on 
almost  spontaneously.  In  Holland,  Belgium, 
Germany  and  Austria  the  popular  agitation  in 
favour  of  peace  was  largely  carried  on  in  con- 
nection with  the  Crusade  movement. 

"  The  Peace  Crusade  in  England  was  remark- 
able on  account  of  the  unanimity  with  which  all 
sections  of  the  community  and  all  the  different 
associations — religious,  socialist  and  industrial- 
worked  together  for  the  common  end.  It  was 
also  remarkable  from  a  financial  point  of  view. 
The  sum  of  between  £4,000  and  £5,000  was 
subscribed  for  carrying  on  the  agitation.  In 
addition  to  this  I  published  and  edited  for  three 
months  a  weekly  paper,  entitled  War  Against 
War.  Both  in  size  and  circulation  War  Against 
War  was  an  advance  upon  anything  that  has 
yet  been  issued  in  the  way  of  a  peace  news- 
paper. As  soon  as  the  Crusade  was  closed  in 
England  I  was  commissioned  to  proceed  to 
Russia  to  present  the  signatures  of  the  Memorial 
to  the  Emperor.  I  was  received  by  Nicholas  II. 
at  Tsarskoe  Selo,  and  reported  in  detail  con- 
cerning the  movement,  about  which  I  found  he 
was  very  well  informed  and  extremely  sym- 
pathetic. He  asked  me  to  report  to  him  person- 
ally every  week  the  progress  of  the  discussions  at 
The  Hague. 

"  From  St.  Petersburg  I  returned  to  The 
Hague,  where  I  remained  during  the  whole 
meeting  of  the  Conference.  Besides  reporting 
the  proceedings  direct  to  the  Emperor,  I  hired  a 


CHILDREN   AND   PEACE  229 

portion  of  a  local  daily  paper,  the  Dagblad,  and 
published  therein  in  French  and  Dutch  the 
chronique  of  the  Conference  from  day  to  day. 
Great  difficulties  were  thrown  in  my  way,  but  I 
succeeded  in  overcoming  them,  and  the  publica- 
tion of  the  jDagblad  did  much  to  keep  up  the 
interest  of  the  delegates  in  their  own  work  as  well 
as  keeping  the  local  public  informed  as  to  what 
was  going  on  in  their  midst.  I  also  reported  The 
Hague  Conference  for  the  Manchester  Guardian, 
and  cabled  a  weekly  letter  to  the  United  States, 
where  it  was  published  by  newspapers  from  New 
York  to  San  Francisco. 

"  During  my  stay  at  The  Hague  I  was  in 
constant  communication  with  the  delegates  of 
England,  Russia,  France,  Sweden  and  Norway, 
and  I  think  1  may,  without  boasting,  say  that  there 
was  no  delegate  present  at  the  Conference  who 
did  not  feel  in  one  way  or  another  the  impact 
of  the  energy  generated  by  the  Peace  Crusade. 

"  Returning  home  to  my  country,  I  was  at 
once  confronted  by  the  terrible  prospect  that  the 
troubles  in  South  Africa  would  culminate  in  war. 
The  men  who  were  hurrying  on  the  war,  Milner, 
Rhodes,  Jameson  and  others,  at  the  Cape,  were 
all  my  own  personal  friends." 

But  so  great  was  his  sense  of  the  mistake  England 
was  making  and  of  his  duty  to  do  all  he  could  to 
prevent  her  taking  the  fatal  step  that  he  threw 
himself  with  his  whole  soul  into  the  agitation 
against  the  war. 

"  Both  on  the  platform  and  in  the  Press,"  he 


230  MY   FATHER 

says,  "  publicly  and  privately,  I  exerted  myself 
to  the  uttermost  to  induce  the  English  Govern- 
ment to  apply  the  principles  of  The  Hague 
Conference  to  the  settlement  of  the  dispute. 
Passion,  however,  was  too  much  excited,  and  the 
plaintive  appeals  of  President  Kruger  for  arbitra- 
tion were  roughly  rejected.  Parliament  was 
summoned,  the  reserves  were  called  out,  troops 
were  hurried  to  South  Africa,  President  Kruger 
issued  his  ultimatum,  making  one  last  despairing 
appeal  for  arbitration.  This  was  rejected,  and 
war  began." 


CHAPTER   XXI 

THE     FRIENDSHIP     BETWEEN      FATHER     AND      CECIL 
JOHN     RHODES 

u  I  have  never  met  a  man  who,  on  broad  Imperial  lines,  was  so 
entirely  of  my  way  of  thinking." — W.  T.  STEAD,  on  Rhodes. 

IT  is  impossible  to  speak  of  my  Father  in 
connection  with  South  Africa  without  referring 
to  his  friendship  with  Cecil  Rhodes. 

Had  Mr.  Rhodes  died  during  the  eight  years 
from  1891-99  my  Father's  life  story  from  this 
time  on  might  have  read  differently,  as  he  would 
then  have  been  charged  with  the  chief  responsi- 
bility of  the  disposal  of  Mr.  Rhodes'  fortune, 
according  to  the  ideas  so  often  discussed  between 
them.  Therefore  I  think  it  well  to  give  here,  in 
my  Father's  own  words,  a  short  account  of  his 
friendship  with  Mr.  Rhodes,  showing  the  reasons 
why  Mr.  Rhodes  selected  him  for  this  great  work — 
and  later  struck  his  name  from  the  last  Will. 

"  I  first  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Rhodes 
in  1889,"  he  writes,  "but  although  that  was  the 
first  occasion  on  which  I  met  him,  or  was  aware 


232  MY   FATHER 

of  the  ideas  which  he  entertained,  he  had  for 
some  years  been  one  of  the  most  enthusiastic 
of  my  readers ;  ever  since  I  succeeded  to  the 
direction  of  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette,  and  began 
the  advocacy  of  what  I  called  the  Imperialism 
of  responsibility  as  opposed  to  Jingoism,  which 
has  been  the  note  of  everything  that  I  have 
said  or  written  ever  since.  It  was  in  the  Pall 
Mall  Gazette  that  I  published  an  article  on 
Anglo-American  re-union  which  brought  me  a 
much-prized  letter  from  Russell  Lowell,  in  which 
he  said  :  'It  is  a  beautiful  dream,  but  it's  none 
the  worse  on  that  account.  Almost  all  the  best 
things  that  we  have  in  the  world  to-day  began 
by  being  dreams.'  It  was  in  the  Pall  Mall 
Gazette  in  those  days  that  I  conducted  a  con- 
tinuous and  passionate  apostolate  in  favour  of 
a  closer  union  with  the  Colonies.  The  ideal  of 
associating  the  Colonies  with  us  in  the  duty  of 
Imperial  Defence  was  another  of  the  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  what  we  called  in  those 
days  'the  Gospel  according  to  the  Pall  MaR 
Gazette: 

"  Cecil  Rhodes,  brooding  in  intellectual 
solitude  in  the  midst  of  the  diamond  diggers 
of  Kimberley,  welcomed  with  enthusiasm  the 
Pall  Mall  Gazette.  He  found  in  it  the  crude 
ideas  which  he  had  embodied  in  his  first  will, 
expressed  from  day  to  day  with  as  great  an 
enthusiasm  as  his  own,  and  with  a  much  closer 
application  to  the  great  movements  which  were 
moulding  the  contemporary  history  of  the 
world.  It  is  probable  (although  he  never 


FATHER  AND  CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  233 

mentioned  this)  that  the  close  personal  friend- 
ship which  existed  between  General  Gordon  and 
himself  constituted  a  still  closer  tie  between 
him  and  the  editor  of  the  journal  whose  inter- 
view had  been  instrumental  in  sending  Gordon 
to  Khartoum,  and  who,  through  all  the  dark 
and  dreary  siege,  was  the  exponent  of  the  ideas 
and  the  champion  of  the  cause  of  that  last  of 
the  Paladins.  Whatever  contributory  causes 
there  may  have  been,  Mr.  Rhodes  always 
asserted  that  his  own  ideas  had  been  profoundly 
modified  and  moulded  by  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette. 
"But  it  was  not  until  1889  that  I  was  first 
introduced  to  him.  As  I  had  been  interested 
in  the  extension  of  British  power  in  Africa  and 
in  the  extension  of  the  northern  trade  route, 
which  rendered  the  northern  expansion  possible, 
I  had  constantly  exerted  myself  in  support  of 
the  ideas  of  Mr.  Mackenzie,  who  was  in  more 
or  less  personal  antagonism  to  the  ideas  of 
Mr.  Rhodes.  Mr.  Mackenzie  and  Mr.  Rhodes 
both  wished  to  secure  the  northern  territory. 
Mr.  Rhodes  believed  in  thrusting  the  authority 
of  Cape  Colony  northward,  and  Mr.  Mackenzie 
was  equally  emphatic  about  placing  Bechuana- 
land  under  the  direct  authority  of  the  Crown. 
This  difference  of  method,  although  it  produced 
much  personal  estrangement,  in  no  way  affected 
their  devotion  to  their  common  ideal.  As  I 
was  on  Mr.  Mackenzie's  side,  I  had  nothing 
to  do  with  Mr.  Rhodes ;  and  when  Sir  Charles 
Mills  (then  Cape  Agent- General)  first  proposed 
that  I  should  meet  him,  I  was  so  far  from 


234  MY   FATHER 

realising  what  it  meant  that  I  refused.  Sir 
Charles  Mills  repeated  his  invitation  with  a 
persistency  and  an  earnestness  which  overcame 
my  reluctance ;  I  abandoned  a  previous  en- 
gagement, and  accepted  his  invitation  to  lunch, 
for  the  purpose  of  meeting  Mr.  Rhodes. 

"  Mr.  Rhodes,  said  Sir  Charles  Mills,  wished 
to  make  my  acquaintance  before  he  returned 
to  Africa.  I  met  Mr.  Rhodes  at  the  Cape 
Agency,  and  was  introduced  to  him  by  Sir 
Charles  Mills,  on  April  4th,  1889.  After  lunch 
Sir  Charles  Mills  left  us  alone,  and  I  had  a 
three  hours'  talk  with  Mr.  Rhodes.  To  say 
that  I  was  astonished  by  what  he  said  to  me 
is  to  say  little.  I  had  expected  nothing — was 
indeed  rather  bored  at  the  idea  of  having  to 
meet  him — and  vexed  at  having  to  give  up  a 
previous  engagement.  But  no  sooner  had 
Sir  Charles  Mills  left  the  room  than  Mr.  Rhodes 
fixed  my  attention  by  pouring  out  the  long- 
dammed-up  flood  of  his  ideas.  Immediately 
after  I  left  him  I  wrote  : — 

"  I  have  never  met  a  man  who,  upon  broad 
Imperial  matters,  was  so  entirely  of  my  way  of 
thinking.' 

"  On  my  expressing  my  surprise  that  we 
should  be  in  such  agreement,  he  laughed  and 
said  : — 

"  '  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  because  I  have 
taken  my  ideas  from  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette' 

"  The  paper  permeated  South  Africa,  he  said, 
and  he  had  met  it  everywhere.  He  then  told  me 
what  surprised  me  not  a  little,  and  what  will 


FATHER  AND  CECIL  JOHN  RHODES(^23§x 

probably  come  to  many  of  those  who  admire  him 
to-day  with  a  certain  shock. 

"  He  said  that  although  he  had  read  regularly 
the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  in  South  Africa,  it  was 
not  until  the  year  1885  that  he  had  realised  that 
the  editor  of  the  paper,  whose  ideas  he  had 
assimilated  so  eagerly,  was  a  person  who  was 
capable  of  defending  his  principles  regardless  of 
considerations  of  his  own  ease  and  safety.  But 
when  in  1885  1  published  '  The  Maiden  Tribute ' 
and  went  to  gaol  for  what  I  had  done,  he  felt, 
6  Here  is  the  man  I  want — one  who  has  not  only 
the  right  principles,  but  is  more  anxious  to  pro- 
mote them  than  to  save  his  own  skin/  He  tried 
to  see  me,  drove  up  to  Holloway  Gaol  and  asked 
to  be  admitted,  was  refused,  and  drove  away  in 
a  pretty  fume.  Lord  Russell  of  Killowen  had 
the  same  experience,  with  the  same  result,  No 
one  can  see  a  prisoner  without  an  order  from  the 
Home  Office. 

"  Mr.  Rhodes  did  not  tell  me  what  I  learned 
only  since  his  death  from  Mr.  Maguire,  that  the 
solitary  occasion  on  which  Mr.  Rhodes  ever 
entered  Exeter  Hall  was  when,  together  with 
Mr.  Maguire,  he  attended  an  indignation  meet- 
ing, called  to  protest  against  my  imprisonment, 
which  was  addressed  among  others,  by  Mrs. 
Josephine  Butler  and  Mrs.  Fawcett. 

"  He  left  for  Africa  without  seeing  me ;  but 
on  his  return  in  1899  he  said  he  would  not  sail 
until  he  had  met  me  and  told  me  all  his  plans. 
Hence  he  had  made  Sir  Charles  Mills  arrange 
this  interview  in  order  to  talk  to  me  about  them 


236  MY   FATHER 

all,  and  specially  to  discuss  how  he  could  help  me 
to  strengthen  and  extend  my  influence  as  editor. 

"  Writing  to  my  wife  immediately  after  I  had 
left  him,  I  said  : — 

"  6  Mr.  Rhodes  is  my  man. 

"  '  I  have  just  had  three  hours'  talk  with  him. 

" '  He  is  full  of  a  far  more  gorgeous  idea  in 
connection  with  the  paper  than  ever  I  have  had. 
I  cannot  tell  you  his  scheme,  because  it  is  too 
secret.  But  it  involves  millions.  .  .  .  He 
expects  to  own,  before  he  dies,  four  or  five 
millions,  all  of  which  he  will  leave  to  carry  out 
the  scheme  of  which  the  paper  is  an  integral 
part.  .  .  .  His  ideas  are  federation,  expansion, 
and  consolidation  of  the  Empire. 

'"He  is  about  thirty-five,  full  of  ideas,  and 
regarding  money  only  as  a  means  to  work  his 
ideas.  He  believes  more  in  wealth  and  endow- 
ments than  I  do.  He  is  not  religious  in  the 
ordinary  sense,  but  has  a  deeply  religious  con- 
ception of  his  duty  to  the  world,  and  thinks  he 
can  best  serve  it  by  working  for  England.  He 
took  to  me ;  told  me  things  he  has  told  to  no 

other  man  save  X It  seems  all  like  a 

fairy  dream.' 

"It  is  not  very  surprising  that  it  had  that 
appearance.  Never  before  or  since  have  I  met  a 
millionaire  who  calmly  declared  his  intention  to 
devote  all  his  millions  to  carry  out  the  ideas 
which  I  had  devoted  my  life  to  propagate. 

"He  was  almost  apologetic  about  his  sugges- 
tion that  his  wealth  might  be  useful.  '  Don't 
despise  money,'  he  said.  '  Your  ideas  are  all 


FATHER  AND  CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  237 

right,  but  without  money  you  can  do  nothing.' 
'  The  twelve  apostles  did  not  find  it  so,'  I  said ; 
and  so  the  talk  went  on.  He  expounded  to  me 
his  ideas  about  underpinning  the  Empire  by  a 
Society  which  would  be  to  the  Empire  what  the 
Society  of  Jesus  was  to  the  Papacy,  and  we 
talked  on  and  on,  upon  very  deep  things  indeed. 

"  Before  we  parted  we  had  struck  up  a  firm 
friendship  which  stood  the  strain  even  of  the 
Raid  and  the  War  on  my  part,  and  of  '  Shall  I 
slay  my  Brother  Boer  ? '  and  *  Hell  let  Loose  '  on 
his.  From  that  moment  I  felt  I  understood 
Rhodes.  I,  almost  alone,  had  the  key  to  the 
real  Rhodes,  and  I  felt  that  from  that  day  it  was 
my  duty  and  my  privilege  to  endeavour  to  the 
best  of  my  ability  to  interpret  him  to  the  world. 
I  kept  no  written  notes  of  that  memorable 
conversation.  But  the  spirit  and  drift  of  our 
talk,  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  which  I 
wrote  to  Mr.  Rhodes  three  months  later,  may 
suffice  to  illustrate  : — 

" '  I  have  been  thinking  a  great  deal  since  I 
first  saw  you  about  your  great  idea  '  (that  of  the 
Society,  which  he  certainly  did  not  take  from 
the  Pall  Mall  Gazette),  '  and  the  more  I  think 
the  more  it  possesses  me,  and  the  more  I  am 
shut  up  to  the  conclusion  that  the  best  way  in 
wThich  I  can  help  towards  its  realisation  is,  as 
you  said  in  a  letter  to  me  last  month,  by  working 
towards  the  paper.  ...  If,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
your  idea  and  mine  is  in  its  essence  the  under- 
taking, according  to  our  lights,  to  rebuild  the 
City  of  God  and  reconstitute  in  the  nineteenth 


288  MY   FATHER 

century  some  modern  equivalent,  equipped  with 
modern  appliances,  of  the  Mediaeval  Church  of 
the  ninth  century,  on  a  foundation  as  broad  as 
Humanity,  then  some  preliminary  inspection  of 
the  planet  would  seem  almost  indispensable.' 

"Any  immediate  action  in  this  direction, 
however,  was  postponed  until  he  made  a  success 
of  Mashonaland.  He  wrote,  '  If  we  made 
a  success  of  this,  it  would  be  doubly  easy  to 
carry  out  the  programme  which  I  sketched 
out  to  you,  a  part  of  which  would  be  the  paper.' 

"  So  he  wrote  from  Lisbon  on  his  way  out. 
A  year  later  (November  25th,  1890)  he  wrote:— 

"  '  MY  DEAR  STEAD, — I  am  getting  on  all 
right,  and  you  must  remember  that  I  am  going 
on  with  the  same  ideas  as  we  discussed  after 
lunch  at  Sir  Charles  Mills'  ...  I  am  sorry  I 
never  met  Booth.  I  understand  what  he  is 
exactly.  When  I  come  home  again  I  must 
meet  Cardinal  Manning,  but  I  am  waiting  until 
I  make  my  Charter  a  success  before  we  attempt 
our  Society — you  can  understand.' 

"  By  the  time  this  letter  reached  me  I  was 
leaving  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  and  preparing 
for  the  publication  of  the  first  number  of  the 
Review  of  Reviews.  It  was  an  enterprise  in 
which  Mr.  Rhodes  took  the  keenest  interest. 
He  regarded  it  as  a  practical  step  towards  the 
realisation  of  his  great  idea,  the  re-union  of 
the  English-speaking  world  through  the  agency 
of  a  central  organ  served  in  every  part  of  the 
world  by  affiliated  Helpers. 

"  This  interest  he  preserved  to  the  last.     He 


FATHER  AND  CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  239 

told  me  with  great  glee  when  last  in  England, 
how  he  had  his  copy  smuggled  into  Kimberley 
during  the  siege,  at  a  time  when  martial  law 
forbade  its  circulation,  arid  although  he  made 
wry  faces  over  some  of  my  articles,  he  was  to 
the  end  keenly  interested  in  its  success. 

"Mr.  Rhodes  returned  to  England  in  1891, 
and  the  day  after  his  arrival  he  came  round  to 
Mowbray  House  and  talked  for  three  hours 
concerning  his  plans,  his  hopes,  arid  his  ideas. 
Fortunately,  immediately  after  he  left,  1  dictated 
to  my  secretary  a  full  report  of  the  conversation, 
which,  as  usual,  was  very  discursive  and  ranged 
over  a  great  number  of  subjects  of  the  day.  It 
was  in  this  conversation,  after  a  close  and 
prolonged  argument,  that  he  expressed  his 
readiness  to  adopt  the  course  from  which  he  had 
at  first  recoiled — viz.,  that  of  securing  the  unity 
of  the  English-speaking  race  by  consenting  to  the 
absorption  of  the  British  Empire  in  the  American 
Union  if  it  could  not  be  secured  in  any  other 
way.  In  his  first  dream  he  clung  passionately 
to  the  idea  of  British  ascendancy — this  was  in 
1877 — in  the  English-speaking  union  of  which  he 
then  thought  John  Bull  was  to  be  the  predomi- 
nant partner.  But  in  1891,  abandoning  in  no  whit 
his  devotion  to  his  own  country,  he  expressed 
his  deliberate  conviction  that  English-speaking 
re-union  was  so  great  an  end  in  itself  as  to  justify 
even  the  sacrifice  of  the  distinctive  features  and 
independent  existence  of  the  British  Empire. 
At  our  first  conversation  in  1889  he  had  somewhat 
demurred  to  this  frank  and  logical  acceptance  of 


240  MY   FATHER 

the  consequences  of  his  own  principles ;  but  in 
1891  all  hesitation  disappeared,  and  from  that 
moment  the  ideal  of  English-speaking  re-union 
assumed  its  natural  and  final  place  as  the  centre 
of  his  political  aspirations.  He  resumed  very 
eagerly  his  conversation  as  to  the  realisation  of 
his  projects.  He  was  in  high  spirits,  and 
expressed  himself  as  delighted  with  the  work 
which  I  had  done  in  founding  the  Review  of 
Reviews,  and  especially  with  the  effort  which  was 
made  to  secure  the  co-operation  of  the  more 
public-spirited  persons  of  our  way  of  thinking  in 
every  constituency  in  the  country,  which  formed 
the  inspiration  of  the  Association  of  Helpers.1 

"  '  You  have  begun,'  said  he,  *  to  realise  my 
idea.  In  the  Review  and  the  Association  of 
Helpers  you  have  made  the  beginning,  which  is 
capable  afterwards  of  being  extended  so  as  to 
carry  out  our  idea.' 

1  "To  establish  a  periodical,  circulating  throughout  the 
English-speaking  world,  with  its  affiliates  or  associates  in  every 
town,  and  its  correspondents  in  every  village,  read  as  men  used 
to  read  their  Bibles,  not  to  waste  an  idle  hour,  but  to  discover 
the  will  of  God  and  their  duty  to  man  ;  whose  staff  and  readers 
alike  are  bound  together  by  a  common  faith  and  a  readiness  to 
do  common  service  for  a  common  end  ;  that,  indeed,  is  an  object 
for  which  it  is  worth  while  to  make  some  sacrifice.  Such  a 
publication,  so  supported,  would  be  at  once  an  education  and  an 
inspiration  ;  and  who  can  say,  looking  at  the  present  condition 
of  England,  and  of  America,  that  it  is  not  needed  1 

"  '  That,'  Father  writes, '  was  my  idea  as  I  expressed  it.  That 
was  Mr.  Rhodes'  idea  also.  It  was  *  our  idea ' — his  idea  of  the 
secret  society — broadened  and  made  presentable  to  the  public 
without  in  any  way  revealing  the  esoteric  truth  that  lay  behind. 
Mr.  Rhodes  recognised  this,  and  eagerly  welcomed  it.' " 


FATHER  AND  CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  241 

"  We  then  discussed  the  persons  who  should 
be  taken  into  our  confidence.  At  that  time  he 
assured  me  he  had  spoken  of  it  to  no  one,  with 
the  exception  of  myself  and  two  others.  He 
authorised  me  to  communicate  with  two  friends, 
now  members  of  the  Upper  House,  who  were 
thoroughly  in  sympathy  with  the  Gospel  accord- 
ing to  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette,  and  who  had  been 
as  my  right  and  left  hands  during  my  editorship 
of  that  paper. 

"  He  entered  at  considerable  length  into  the 
question  of  the  disposition  of  his  fortune  after 
his  death.  He  said  that  if  he  were  to  die  then, 
the  whole  of  his  money  was  left  absolutely  at  the 
disposition  of  X. 

"  '  But,'  he  said,  '  the  thought  torments  me 
sometimes  when  I  wake  at  night  that  if  I  die, 
all  my  money  will  pass  into  the  hands  of  a 
man  who,  however  well-disposed,  is  absolutely 
incapable  of  understanding  my  ideas.  I  have 
endeavoured  to  explain  them  to  him,  but  I 
could  see  from  the  look  on  his  face  that  it 
made  no  impression,  that  the  ideas  did  not 
enter  his  mind,  and  that  I  was  simply  wasting 
my  time.' 

"  Mr.  Rhodes  went  on  to  say  that  his  friend's 
son  was  even  less  sympathetic  than  the  father, 
and  he  spoke  with  pathos  of  the  thought  of 
his  returning  to  the  world  after  he  was  dead, 
and  seeing  none  of  his  money  applied  to  the 
uses  for  the  sake  of  which  he  had  made  his 
fortune. 

"  Therefore,  he  went  on  to  say,  he  proposed 

R 


242  MY   FATHER 

to  add  my  name  to  that  of  X.,  and  to  leave  at 
the  same  time  a  letter  which  would  give  X.  to 
understand  that  the  money  was  to  be  disposed 
of  by  me,  in  the  assured  conviction  that  1 
should  employ  every  penny  of  his  millions  in 
promoting  the  ideas  to  which  we  had  both  dedi- 
cated our  lives. 

"  I  was  somewhat  startled  at  this,  and  suggested 
that  X.  would  be  considerably  amazed  when  he 
found  himself  saddled  with  such  a  joint-heir  as 
myself,  and  I  suggested  to  Mr.  Rhodes  that  he 
had  better  explain  the  change  which  he  was 
making  in  his  will  to  X.  while  he  was  here  in 
London. 

" '  No,'  he  said,  '  my  letter  will  make  it  quite 
plain  to  him.' 

"  '  Well,'  I  said,  '  but  there  may  be  trouble. 
When  the  will  is  opened  and  he  discovers  that 
the  money  is  really  left  at  my  disposal,  instead 
of  at  his,  there  may  be  ructions.' 

"'I  don't  mind  that,'  said  Mr.  Rhodes;  41 
shall  be  gone  then.' 

"Mr.  Rhodes  then  superseded  the  will  on  a 
sheet  of  note-paper,  which  left  his  fortune  to  X., 
by  a  formal  will,  in  which  the  whole  of  his  real 
and  personal  estate  was  left  to  '  X '  and  to  '  W. 
Stead,  of  the  Review  of  Reviews'  This  will,  the 
fourth  in  order,  was  signed  in  March,  1891. 

"  In  1892  Mr.  Rhodes  was  back  in  London, 
and  again  the  question  of  the  disposition  of  his 
fortune  came  up,  and  he  determined  to  make  a 
fifth  will.  Before  he  gave  his  final  instructions 
he  discussed  with  me  the  question  whether  there 


FATHER  AND  CECIL  JOHN  RHODES   243 

should  not  be  a  third  party  added,  so  that  we 
should  be  three.  We  discussed  one  or  two 
names,  and  he  afterwards  told  me  that  he  had 
added  Mr.  Hawksley  as  a  third  party.  His 
reasons  for  doing  this  were  that  he  liked  Mr. 
Hawksley,  and  had  explained,  expounded,  and 
discussed  his  views  with  him,  and  found  him 
sympathetic.  He  went  on  to  say  :— 

"  '  I  think  it  is  best  that  it  should  be  left  so. 
You  know  my  ideas  and  will  carry  them  out. 
But  there  will  be  a  great  deal  of  financial 
administration  that  X.  will  look  after.  Many 
legal  questions  will  be  involved,  and  these  you 
can  safely  leave  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Hawksley.' 

"And  so  it  was  that  when  the  fifth  will, 
drafted  in  1892,  was  signed  by  Mr.  Rhodes  in 
1893,  X.,  Mr.  Hawksley  and  myself  were  left 
sole  executors  and  joint  heirs  of  Mr.  Rhodes' 
fortune,  with  the  understanding  that  I  was  the 
custodian  of  the  Rhodesian  ideas,  that  I  was  to 
decide  as  to  the  method  in  which  the  money  was 
to  be  used  according  to  these  ideas,  subject  to 
the  advice  of  X.  on  financial  matters,  and  of  Mr. 
Hawksley  on  matters  of  law. 

"  On  bidding  me  good-bye,  after  having  an- 
nounced the  completion  of  his  arrangements,  Mr. 
Rhodes  stated  that  when  he  got  to  Africa  he 
would  write  out  his  ideas,  and  send  them  to  me 
in  order  that  I  might  put  them  into  literary  dress 
and  publish  them  under  his  name  as  his  ideas.  I 
carried  out  his  instructions,  and  published  the  sub- 
stance of  this  letter,  with  very  slight  modifica- 
tions necessary  to  give  it  the  clothing  that  he 

R  2 


244  MY  FATHER 

desired,  as  a  manifesto  to  the  electors  at  the 
General  Election  of  1895. 

"In  1894  Mr.  Rhodes  came  to  England  and 
again  discussed  with  me  the  working  of  the 
scheme,  reported  to  me  his  impressions  of  the 
various  Ministers  and  leaders  of  the  Opposition 
whom  he  met,  discussing  each  of  them  from  the 
point  of  view  as  to  how  far  he  would  assist  in  carry- 
ing out  'our  ideas.'  We  also  discussed  together 
various  projects  for  propaganda,  the  formation  of 
libraries,  the  creation  of  lectureships,  the  dispatch 
of  emissaries  on  missions  of  propagandism 
throughout  the  Empire,  and  the  steps  to  be  taken 
to  pave  the  way  for  the  foundation  and  the 
acquisition  of  a  newspaper  which  was  to  be 
devoted  to  the  service  of  the  cause.  There  was 
at  one  time  a  discussion  of  a  proposal  to  endow 
the  Association  of  Helpers  with  the  annual 
income  of  £5,000,  but  Mr.  Rhodes  postponed  the 
execution  of  this  scheme  until  he  was  able  to 
make  the  endowment  permanent.  He  was 
heavily  drawn  upon  in  the  development  of 
Rhodesia ;  he  did  not  wish  to  realise  his  securities 
just  then,  but  he  entered  with  the  keenest 
interest  into  all  these  projects. 

"  '  1  tell  you  everything,'  he  said  to  me ;  '  I 
tell  you  all  my  plans.  You  tell  me  all  your 
schemes,  and  when  we  get  the  northern  country 
settled,  we  shall  be  able  to  carry  them  out.  It 
is  necessary,'  he  added,  'that  I  should  tell  you 
all  my  ideas,  in  order  that  you  may  know  what  to 
do  if  I  should  go.  But,'  he  went  on,  '  1  am  still 
full  of  vigour  and  life,  and  I  don't  expect  that  I 


FATHER  AND  CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  245 

shall  require  anyone  but  myself  to  administer  my 
money  for  many  years  to  come.' 

"  It  was  at  an  interview  in  January,  1895,  that 
Mr.  Rhodes  first  announced  to  me  his  intention 
to  found  scholarships.  He  said  he  had  added  a 
codicil  to  his  will  making  provision  for  these 
scholarships,  which  would  entail  an  annual  charge 
upon  his  estate  of  about  £10,000  a  year.  He  ex- 
plained that  there  would  be  three  for  French 
Canadians  and  three  for  British.  Each  of  the 
Australasian  Colonies,  including  Western 
Australia  and  Tasmania,  was  to  have  three — that 
is  to  say,  one  each  year  ;  but  the  Cape,  because  it 
was  his  own  Colony,  was  to  have  twice  as  many 
scholarships  as  any  other  Colony.  This,  he  said, 
he  had  done  in  order  to  give  us,  as  his  executors 
and  heirs,  a  friendly  lead  as  to  the  kind  of  thing 
he  wanted  done  with  his  money.  The  scholar- 
ships were  to  be  tenable  at  Oxford. 

"  When  Mr.  Rhodes  left  England  in  February, 
1895,  he  was  at  the  zenith  of  his  power.  Alike 
in  London  and  in  South  Africa,  every  obstacle 
seemed  to  bend  before  his  determined  will.  It 
was  difficult  to  say  upon  which  political  party  he 
could  count  with  greater  confidence  for  support. 
He  was  independent  of  both  parties,  and  on  terms 
of  more  or  less  cordial  friendship  with  one  or  two 
leaders  in  both  of  the  alternative  Governments. 
In  Rhodesia  the  impis  of  Lobengula  had  been 
shattered,  and  a  territory  as  large  as  the  German 
Empire  had  been  won  for  civilisation  at  a  cost 
both  in  blood  and  treasure  which  is  in  signal  con- 
trast to  the  expenditure  incurred  for  such 


246  MY  FATHER 

expeditions  when  directed  from  Downing  Street. 
When  he  left  England  everything  seemed  to  point 
to  his  being  able  to  carry  out  his  greater  scheme, 
when  we  should  be  able  to  undertake  the 
propagation  of  '  our  ideas '  on  a  wider  scale 
throughout  the  world. 

"  And  then,  upon  this  fair  and  smiling  prospect 
the  abortive  conspiracy  in  Johannesburg  of  the 
Raid  cast  its  dark  and  menacing  shadow  over  the 
scene.  No  one  in  all  England  had  more  reason 
than  1  to  regret  the  diversion  of  Mr.  Rhodes' 
energies  from  the  path  which  he  had  traced  for 
himself.  Who  can  imagine  to  what  pinnacle  of 
greatness  Mr.  Rhodes  might  not  have  risen  if  the 
natural  and  normal  pacific  development  of  South 
Africa,  which  was  progressing  so  steadily  under 
his  enlightened  guidance,  had  not  been  rudely 
interrupted  by  the  fiasco  for  which  Mr.  Rhodes 
was  not  primarily  responsible. 

"  It  was  what  seemed  to  me  the  inexplicable 
desire  of  Mr.  Rhodes  to  obtain  Bechuanaland  as 
a  jumping-off  place  which  led  to  the  first  diver- 
gence of  view  between  him  and  myself  on  the 
subject  of  South  African  policy.  The  impetuosity 
with  which  his  emissaries  pressed  for  the  imme- 
diate transfer  of  Bechuanaland  to  the  Chartered 
Company  made  me  very  uneasy,  and  I  resolutely 
opposed  the  cession  of  the  jumping-off  place 
subsequently  used  by  Dr.  Jameson  as  a  base  for 
his  Raid.  Mr.  Rhodes  was  very  wrath,  and 
growled  like  an  angry  bear  at  what  he  regarded 
as  my  perversity  in  objecting  to  a  cession  of 
territory  for  which  I  could  see  no  reason,  but  as 


FATHER  AND  CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  247 

to  which  he  thought  it  ought  to  have  been 
enough  for  me  that  he  desired  it.  My  opposition 
was  unfortunately  unavailing. 

"  In  the  two  disastrous  years  which  followed 
the  Raid,  although  I  saw  Mr.  Rhodes  frequently, 
we  talked  little  or  nothing  about  his  favourite 
Society.  More  pressing  questions  pre-occupied 
our  attention.  I  regretted  that  Mr.  Rhodes  was 
not  sent  to  gaol,  and  told  him  so  quite  frankly. 

"  For  reasons  which  need  not  be  stated,  as 
they  are  sufficiently  obvious,  no  attempt  was 
made  to  bring  Mr.  Rhodes  to  justice.  His 
superiors  were  publicly  whitewashed,  while  the 
blow  fell  heavily  upon  his  subordinates.  When 
Mr.  Rhodes  came  back  to  '  face  the  music,'  he 
fully  expected  that  he  would  be  imprisoned,  and 
had  even  planned  out  a  course  of  reading  by 
which  he  hoped  to  improve  the  enforced  sojourn 
in  a  convict  cell. 

"  Through  all  that  trying  time  I  can  honestly 
say  that  I  did  my  level  best  to  help  my  friend 
out  of  the  scrape  in  which  he  had  placed  himself 
without  involving  the  nation  at  the  same  time  in 
the  disaster  which  subsequently  overtook  it.  My 
endeavour  to  induce  all  parties  to  tell  the  truth 
and  to  shoulder  the  modicum  of  blame  attaching 
to  each  for  his  share  of  the  conspiracy,  failed. 
Mr.  Rhodes  was  offered  up  as  a  scapegoat.  But 
although  differing  so  widely  on  the  vital  question, 
with  which  was  bound  up  the  future  of  South 
Africa,  my  relations  with  Mr.  Rhodes  remained 
as  affectionate  and  intimate  as  ever.  The  last 
time  I  saw  him  before  the  war  broke  out  we 


248  MY   FATHER 

had  a  long  talk,  which  failed  to  bring  us  to 
agreement.  Mr.  Rhodes  said  that  he  had  tried 
his  hand  at  settling  the  Transvaal  business,  but 
he  had  made  such  a  mess  of  it  that  he  absolutely 
refused  to  take  any  initiative  in  the  matter  again. 
The  question  was  now  in  the  hands  of  Lord 
Milner,  and  he  appealed  to  me  to  support  my 
old  coUeague,  for  whose  nomination  as  High 
Commissioner  I  was  largely  responsible.  I  said 
that  while  I  would  support  Milner  in  whatever 
policy  he  thought  fit  to  pursue,  so  long  as  he 
confined  himself  to  measures  of  peace,  I  could 
not  believe,  even  on  his  authority,  that  the 
situation  in  South  Africa  would  justify  an  appeal 
to  arms.  Mr.  Rhodes  replied  : — 

"  '  You  will  support  Milner  in  any  measure  he 
may  take  short  of  war.  I  make  no  such  limita- 
tion. I  support  Milner  absolutely  without 
reserve.  If  he  says  peace,  I  say  peace ;  if  he 
says  war,  I  say  war.  Whatever  happens,  I  say 
ditto  to  Milner.' 

"  In  justice  to  Mr.  Rhodes  it  must  be  said 
that  he  was  firmly  convinced  that  President 
Kruger  would  yield,  and  that  no  resort  to 
arms  would  be  necessary.  He  went  to  South 
Africa,  and  I  went  to  The  Hague,  and  we 
never  met  again  until  after  the  siege  of  Kim- 
berley. 

"  It  was  in  July,  1899,  before  the  outbreak  of 
the  war,  that  Mr.  Rhodes  revoked  his  will  of 
1891,  and  substituted  for  it  what  is  now  known 
as  his  last  will  and  testament.  It  is  probable 
that  the  experience  which  we  had  gained  since 


FATHER  AND  CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  249 

the  Raid  of  the  difficulties  of  carrying  out  his 
original  design  led  him  to  recast  his  will  to 
give  it  a  scope  primarily  educational,  instead  of 
leaving  the  whole  of  his  estate  to  me  and  my 
joint-heirs  to  be  applied  as  I  thought  best  for  the 
furtherance  of  his  political  idea.  Anyhow,  the 
whole  scheme  was  recast.  Trustees  were  ap- 
pointed for  carrying  out  various  trusts,  all  of 
which,  however,  did  not  absorb  more  than  half 
of  the  income  of  his  estate.  The  idea  which 
found  expression  in  all  his  earlier  wills  reappeared 
solely  in  the  final  clause  appointing  his  trustees  and 
executors  joint-heirs  of  the  residue  of  the  estate. 

"In  selecting  the  executors,  trustees  and 
joint-heirs,  Mr.  Rhodes  substituted  the  name  of 
Lord  Grey  for  that  of  X.,  re-appointed  Mr. 
Hawksley  and  myself,  strengthened  the  financial 
element  by  adding  the  names  of  Mr.  Beit  and 
Mr.  Mitchell,  of  the  Standard  Bank  of  South 
Africa,  and  then  crowned  the  edifice  by  adding 
the  name  of  Lord  Rosebery.  As  the  will  stood 
at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  there  were  six 
executors,  trustees  and  joint-heirs — to  wit,  Mr. 
Hawksley  and  myself,  representing  the  original 
legatees,  Lord  Rosebery,  Lord  Grey,  Mr.  Beit, 
and  Mr.  Mitchell. 

"  Many  discussions  took  place  during  the 
framing  of  this  will.  In  those  preliminary  dis- 
cussions I  failed  to  induce  Mr.  Rhodes  to 
persevere  in  his  original  intention  to  allow  the 
scholarships  to  be  held  equally  at  Oxford  and 
Cambridge,  and  wherein  I  think  Mr.  Rhodes 
was  right.  I  was  more  fortunate,  however,  in 


250  MY   FATHER 

inducing  him  to  extend  the  scope  of  his  scholar- 
ships so  as  to  include  in  the  scheme  the  States 
and  Territories  of  the  American  Union,  but  he 
refused  to  open  his  scholarships  to  women.  So 
far  as  I  was  concerned,  although  still  intensely 
interested  in  Mr.  Rhodes'  conceptions,  the 
change  that  was  then  made  immensely  reduced 
my  responsibility.  To  be  merely  one  of  half  a 
dozen  executors  and  trustees  was  a  very  different 
matter  from  being  charged  with  the  chief 
responsibility  of  using  the  whole  of  Mr.  Rhodes' 
wealth  for  the  purposes  of  political  propaganda, 
which,  if  Mr.  Rhodes  had  been  killed  by  the 
Matabele  or  had  died  any  time  between  1891 
and  1899,  it  would  have  been  my  duty  to 
undertake. 

"When,  after  the  raising  of  the  siege  of 
Kimberley,  Mr.  Rhodes  returned  to  London,  I 
had  a  long  talk  with  him  at  the  Burlington 
Hotel  in  April,  1900.  Mr.  Rhodes,  although 
more  affectionate  than  he  had  ever  been  before 
in  manner,  did  not  in  the  least  disguise  his 
disappointment  that  I  should  have  thrown 
myself  so  vehemently  into  the  agitation  against 
the  war.  It  seemed  to  him  extraordinary;  but 
he  charitably  concluded  it  was  due  to  my 
absorption  in  the  Peace  Conference  at  The 
Hague.  His  chief  objection,  which  obviously 
was  present  to  his  mind  when,  nearly  twelve 
months  later,  he  removed  my  name  from  the 
will,  was  not  so  much  the  fact  that  I  differed 
from  him  in  judgment  about  the  war,  as  that  1 
was  not  willing  to  subordinate  my  judgment  to 


FATHER  AND  CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  251 

that  of  the  majority  of  our  associates  who  were 
on  the  spot. 

"  He  said  : — 

"  *  That  is  the  curse  which  will  be  fatal  to  our 
ideas — insubordination.  Do  not  you  think  it 
is  very  disobedient  of  you?  How  can  our 
Society  be  worked  if  each  one  sets  himself  up  as 
the  sole  judge  of  what  ought  to  be  done  ?  Just 
look  at  the  position  here.  We  three  are  in  South 
Africa,  all  of  us  your  boys '  (for  that  was  the 
familiar  way  in  which  he  always  spoke),  '  I 
myself,  Milner  and  Garrett,  all  of  whom  learned 
their  politics  from  you.  We  are  on  the  spot 
and  we  are  unanimous  in  declaring  this  war  to  be 
necessary.  You  have  never  been  in  South  Africa, 
and  yet  instead  of  deferring  to  the  judgment  of 
your  own  boys,  you  fling  yourself  into  a  violent 
opposition  to  the  war.  I  should  not  have  acted 
in  that  way  about  an  English  question  or  an 
American  question.  No  matter  how  much  I 
might  have  disliked  the  course  which  you  advised, 
I  would  have  said  "  No,  I  know  Stead ;  I  trust 
his  judgment  and  he  is  on  the  spot.  I  support 
whatever  policy  he  recommends." 

" '  It's  all  very  well,'  I  replied,  '  but  you  see, 
although  I  have  never  been  in  South  Africa,  I 
learned  my  South  African  policy  at  the  feet  of  a 
man  who  was  to  me  the  greatest  authority  on 
the  subject.  He  always  impressed  upon  me  one 
thing  so  strongly  that  it  became  a  fixed  idea  in 
my  mind,  from  which  I  could  never  depart.  That 
principle  was  that  you  could  not  rule  South 
Africa  without  the  Dutch,  and  that  if  you 


252  MY   FATHER 

quarrelled  with  the  Dutch,  South  Africa  was 
lost  to  the  Empire.  My  teacher,'  I  said,  '  whose 
authority  I  reverence — perhaps  you  know  him  ? 
His  name  was  Cecil  John  Rhodes.  Now  I  am 
true  to  the  real,  aboriginal  Cecil  John  Rhodes, 
and  1  cannot  desert  the  principles  which  he 
taught  me  merely  because  another  who  calls 
himself  by  the  same  name  advises  me  to  follow 
an  exactly  opposite  policy.' 

"  Mr.  Rhodes  laughed  and  said :  '  Oh,  well, 
circumstances  have  changed.  But  after  all,  that 
does  not  matter  now.  The  war  is  ending  and 
that  is  a  past  issue.' 

"  Then,  later  on,  when  Mr.  Hawksley  came  in, 
we  had  a  long  discussion  concerning  the  number 
of  marks  to  be  allotted  under  each  of  the  heads. 

"  Mr.  Rhodes  went  back  to  Africa  and  I  did 
not  see  him  again  till  his  return  in  1901.  In 
January  of  that  year,  he  had  added  a  codicil  to 
his  will,  removing  my  name  from  the  list  of 
executors,  fearing  that  the  others  might  find  it 
difficult  to  work  with  me.  He  wrote  me  at  the 
same  time  saying  I  was  '  too  masterful '  to  work 
with  the  other  executors. 

"  In  the  October  of  that  year  he  added  Lord 
Milner's  name  to  the  list  of  executors  and  joint- 
heirs,  and  in  March,  on  his  death-bed,  he  added 
the  name  of  Dr.  Jameson.  The  number  of 
executors,  therefore,  is  now  seven. 

"  Looking  back  over  this  whole  episode  of  my 
career — an  episode  now  definitely  closed — I 
remember  with  gratitude  the  help  which  I  was 
able  to  give  to  Mr.  Rhodes,  and  I  regret  that  in 


FATHER  AND  CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  253 

one  great  blunder  which  marred  his  career  my 
opposition  failed  to  turn  him  from  his  purpose. 
Both  in  what  I  aided  him  to  do  and  in  what  I 
attempted  to  prevent  his  doing,  I  was  faithful  to 
the  great  ideal  for  the  realisation  of  which  we 
first  shook  hands  in  1889. 

"  Apart  from  the  success  or  failure  of  political 
projects,  I  have  the  satisfaction  of  remembering 
the  words  which  Mr.  Rhodes  spoke  in  April, 
1900,  when  the  war  was  at  its  height.  Taking 
my  hand  in  both  of  his  with  a  tenderness  quite 
unusual  to  him,  he  said  to  me : — 

" '  Now  I  want  you  to  understand  that  if,  in 
future,  you  should  unfortunately  feel  yourself 
compelled  to  attack  me  personally  as  vehemently 
as  you  have  attacked  my  policy  in  this  war, 
it  will  make  no  difference  to  our  friendship. 
I  am  too  grateful  to  you  for  all  1  have  learned 
from  you  to  allow  anything  that  you  may  write 
or  say  to  make  any  change  in  our  relations.' 

"  How  few  public  men  there  are  who  would 
have  said  that !  And  yet  men  marvel  that  I 
loved  him — and  love  him  still." 


CHAPTER  XXII 

PHOTOGRAPHING    INVISIBLE   BEINGS 

"  Millions  of  Spiritual  creatures  walk  the  earth 
Unseen,  both  when  we  wake  and  when  we  sleep." 

— MILTON. 

It  was  during  the  South  African  War  that  my 
Father  obtained  one  of  his  best  authenticated  Spirit 
photographs,  so  I  think  that  it  is  well  to  give  here 
his  own  account  of  his  experiments  in  that  direction. 
He  writes  : — 

"  While  recording  the  results  at  which  I  have 
arrived,  I  wish  to  repudiate  any  desire  to  dog- 
matise as  to  their  significance  or  their  origin.  I 
merely  record  the  facts,  and  although  I  may 
indicate  conclusions  and  inferences  which  I  have 
drawn  from  them,  I  attach  no  importance  to 
anything  but  the  facts  themselves. 

"There  is  living  in  London  at  the  present 
moment  an  old  man  of  seventy-one  years  of  age  ; 
a  man  of  no  education ;  he  can  write,  but  he 
cannot  spell,  and  he  has  for  many  years  earned 
his  living  as  a  photographer.  He  was  always  in 
a  small  way  of  business,  a  quiet  inoffensive  man 


264 


INVISIBLE   BEINGS  255 

who  brought  up  his  family  respectably,  and  lived 
in  peace  with  his  neighbours,  attracting  no  par- 
ticular remark.  .  . 

"When  he  started  in  business  as  a  photo- 
grapher, it  was  in  the  days  when  the  wet  process 
was  almost  universal,  and  he  was  much  annoyed 
by  finding,  that  when  he  exposed  plates,  other 
forms  than  that  of  the  sitter  would  appear  in  the 
background.  So  many  plates  were  spoiled  by 
these  unwelcome  intruders  that  his  partner 
became  very  angry,  and  insisted  that  the  plates 
had  not  been  washed  before  they  were  used. 
He  protested  this  was  not  so,  and  asked  his 
partner  to  bring  a  packet  of  completely  new 
plates  with  which  he  would  take  a  photograph 
and  see  what  was  the  result.  His  partner 
accepted  the  challenge,  and  produced  a  plate 
which  had  never  previously  been  used,  but  when 
the  portrait  of  the  next  sitter  was  taken,  there 
appeared  a  shadow  form  in  the  background. 
Angry  and  frightened  at  this  unwelcome 
appearance  he  flung  the  plate  to  the  ground 
with  an  oath,  and  from  that  time  for  very  many 
years  he  was  never  again  troubled  by  an 
occurrence  of  similar  phenomena. 

"  About  ten  years  ago  he  became  interested  in 
spiritualism,  and  to  his  surprise,  and  also  to  his 
regret,  the  shadow  figures  began  to  re-appear  on 
the  background  of  the  photographs.  He  re- 
peatedly had  to  destroy  negatives  and  ask  his 
customer  to  give  him  another  sitting.  It  did  his 
business  harm,  and  in  order  to  avoid  this  annoy- 
ance he  left  most  of  the  photographing  to  his  son. 


256  MY   FATHER 

"  I  happened  to  hear  of  these  curious  experi- 
ences of  his  and  sought  him  out.  I  found  him 
very  reluctant  to  speak  about  the  matter.  He 
said  frankly  he  did  not  know  how  the  figures 
came ;  it  had  been  a  great  annoyance  to  him, 
and  it  gave  his  shop  a  bad  name.  He  did  not 
wish  anything  to  be  said  about  the  matter. 
In  deference,  however,  to  repeated  pressing  on 
my  part,  he  consented  to  make  experiments  with 
me,  and  I  had  at  various  times  a  considerable 
number  of  sittings. 

"  At  first  I  brought  my  own  plates  (half  plate 
size).  He  allowed  me  to  place  them  in  his 
slide  in  the  dark  room,  to  put  them  in  the 
camera,  which  I  was  allowed  to  turn  inside-out, 
and  after  they  were  exposed,  I  was  permitted 
to  go  into  the  dark  room  and  develop  them  in 
his  presence.  Under  these  conditions  I  repeatedly 
obtained  pictures  of  persons  who  were  certainly 
not  visible  to  me  in  the  studio.  I  was  allowed 
to  do  almost  anything  that  I  pleased,  to 
alter  the  background,  to  change  the  position 
of  the  camera,  to  sit  at  any  angle  that  I  chose— 
in  short  to  act  as  if  the  studio  and  all  belonging 
to  it  was  my  own.  And  I  repeatedly  obtained 
what  the  old  photographer  called  'shadow 
pictures,'  but  none  of  them  bore  any  resemblance 
to  any  person  whom  I  had  known. 

"  In  all  these  earlier  experiments  the  photo- 
grapher, whom  I  will  call  Mr.  B.,  made  no 
charge,  and  the  only  request  that  he  made  was 
that  I  should  not  publish  his  name,  or  do  any- 
thing to  let  his  neighbours  know  of  the  curious 


INVISIBLE    BEINGS  257 

shadow  pictures  which  were  obtainable  in  his 
studio. 

"After  a  time  I  was  so  thoroughly  satisfied 
that  the  shadow  photographs,  or  spirit  forms, 
were  not  produced  by  any  fraud  on  the  part  of 
the  photographer,  that  I  did  not  trouble  to 
bring  my  own  marked  plates,  I  allowed  him  to 
use  his  own,  and  to  do  all  the  work  of  loading 
the  slide  and  of  developing  the  plate  without 
my  assistance  or  supervision.  What  I  wanted 
was  to  see  whether  it  would  be  possible  for  me 
to  obtain  a  photograph  of  any  person  known 
to  me  in  life  who  has  passed  over  to  the  other 
side.  The  production  of  one  such  picture,  if 
the  person  was  unknown  to  the  photographer, 
and  he  had  no  means  of  obtaining  the  photo- 
graph of  the  original  while  on  earth,  seemed 
to  me  so  much  better  a  test  of  the  genuineness 
of  the  phenomena  than  could  be  secured  by  any 
amount  of  personal  supervision  of  the  process 
of  photography,  that  I  left  him  to  operate 
without  interference.  The  results  he  obtained 
when  left  to  himself  were  precisely  the  same  as 
those  when  the  slides  passed  only  through  my 
own  hands.  But,  although  I  obtained  a  great 
variety  of  portraits  of  unknown  persons,  I  got 
none  whom  1  could  recognise. 

"  In  a  conversation  with  Mr.  B.  as  to  how 
these  shadow  pictures,  as  he  called  them,  came 
on  the  plate,  I  found  him  almost  as  much  at  sea 
as  myself.  He  said  that  he  did  not  know 
how  they  came,  but  that  he  had  noticed  that 
they  came  more  frequently  and  with  greater 

s 


258  MY   FATHER 

distinctness  at  some  times  than  at  others.  He 
could  never  say  beforehand  whether  they  would 
come  or  not.  He  frequently  informed  me  when 
my  sitting  began  that  he  could  guarantee 
nothing.  And  often  the  set  of  plates  would 
bear  no  trace  of  any  portrait  save  mine. 

"He  was  very  reluctant  to  continue  the 
experiments,  and  used  to  complain  that  after 
exposing  four  plates  with  a  view  to  obtaining 
such  pictures  he  felt  quite  exhausted.  And 
sometimes  he  complained  his  '  innards  seemed 
to  be  turned  upside-down/  to  use  his  own 
phrase,  I  usually  sat  with  him  between  two 
and  three  in  the  afternoon,  and  on  the  days 
which  I  came  he  always  abstained  from  the 
usual  glass  of  beer  which  he  took  with  his 
mid-day  meal.  If  I  came  unexpectedly,  and  he 
had  had  a  single  glass  of  beer,  which  formed 
his  usual  beverage,  he  would  alway  assure  me 
that  1  need  not  expect  any  good  results.  I, 
however,  never  found  any  particular  difference 
between  the  results. 

"We  often  discussed  the  matter  together. 
And  he  was  evidently  working  out  a  theory  of 
his  own,  as  anyone  might  under  such  circum- 
stances. He  knew  that  when  he  was  excited  or 
irritated  he  got  bad  results.  Hence  he  often 
used  to  keep  a  music-box  going,  for  the  music, 
in  his  opinion,  tended  to  set  up  good  and  tranquil 
conditions.  He  said  he  thought  something  must 
come  out  of  him,  what,  he  did  not  know,  but 
something  was  taken  out  of  him,  and  with  this 
something  he  thought  the  entities,  whoever  they 


INVISIBLE    BEINGS  259 

were,  built  themselves  up  and  acquired  sufficient 
substance  to  reflect  the  rays  of  light  so  as  to 
impress  the  sensitive  plate  in  his  camera.  He 
also  thought  that  his  old  camera  had  become, 
what  he  called,  magnetised,  and  although  it  was 
an  old-fashioned  piece  of  furniture,  which  I  not 
only  examined  myself,  but  have  had  examined 
by  expert  photographers,  nothing  could  be  dis- 
covered within  or  without  it  which  would  account 
for  the  results  obtained.  He  also  was  of  opinion 
•that  even  although  he  did  not  touch  the  photo- 
graphic plate,  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  touch 
or  to  hold  his  hand  over  the  photographic  slide, 
and  also  to  hold  his  hand  over  the  plate  when  it 
was  in  the  developing  bath.  His  theory  was 
that,  in  some  way  or  other,  this  process  magne- 
tised the  plate  and  brought  out  a  shadow 
portrait. 

"  One  peculiarity  of  almost  all  the  shadow 
pictures  obtained  in  all  these  series  of  experi- 
ments is  that  they  have  around  them  the  same 
kind  of  white  drapery  which  is  so  familiar  to 
those  who  have  taken  part  in  a  materialising 
stance.  Sometimes  this  drapery  is  more  volu- 
minous than  at  others ;  often,  when  the  con- 
ditions are  good,  the  form  which  at  first  appears 
with  its  head  encompassed  with  drapery  will 
appear  on  the  second  plate  without  any  drapery. 
On  asking  Mr.  B.  what  explanation  he  could 
give  for  this,  he  said  he  did  not  know,  but  he 
believed  that  the  bodily  appearance  assumed  by 
the  spirit  was  very  sensitive  and  needed  to  be 
shielded  from  currents  which  might  harm  it. 

s  2 


260  MY   FATHER 

But  when  harmony  prevailed  they  could  venture 
to  remove  the  drapery,  and  be  photographed 
without  it.  Whatever  may  be  the  value  of 
Mr.  B.'s  theory,  there  is  little  doubt  that  some- 
thing is  given  off  from  his  body  which  can  be 
photographed.  The  white  mist  that  appears  to 
emanate  from  him  forms  into  cloudy  folds  out  of 
which  there  protrudes  a  more  or  less  clearly 
defined  face  with  human  features.  Sometimes 
this  white  and  misty  cloud  obscures  the  sitter, 
at  other  times  it  seems  to  be  condensed  as  if  it 
were  in  the  process  of  being  worked  up  into  a 
definite  form  for  the  completion  of  which  either 
time  or  some  other  conditions  were  lacking. 
It  was  also  noticeable  that  the  entity,  who- 
ever it  may  be  which  builds  up  the  form,  who 
is  giving  off  sufficient  solidity  to  impress  its 
image  upon  the  plate  in  the  camera,  having 
once  created  a  form,  will  use  it  repeatedly 
without  any  change  of  position  or  expression. 
This  will  no  doubt  seem  a  great  stumbling-block 
to  many.  But  the  fact  is  as  I  have  stated  it, 
and  our  first  business  is  to  ascertain  facts, 
whether  they  tell  for  or  against  any  particular 
hypothesis.  It  may  be  that  the  disembodied 
spirit,  in  order  to  establish  its  identity,  con- 
structs, out  of  the  '  aura '  given  off  by  the 
photographer  or  other  medium,  a  mask  or  cast 
bearing  the  unmistakable  resemblance  to  the 
body  which  it  wore  in  its  sojourn  on  earth. 
Having  once  built  it  up  for  use  in  the  studio,  it 
may  be  easier  to  employ  the  same  cast  again 
and  again  instead  of  building  up  a  new  one  at 


INVISIBLE    BEINGS  261 

each  fresh  sitting.  Upon  this  point,  however,  I 
shall  have  something  to  say  further  on. 

"  I  was  very  much  interested  in  the  results  I 
obtained,  although,  as  none  of  the  photographs 
were  identified,  I  did  not  deem  the  experiment 
completely  successful.  I  was  very  anxious  to 
induce  Mr.  B.  to  devote  some  months  to  an 
uninterrupted  series  of  experiments,  and  asked 
him  on  what  terms  I  could  secure  his  services. 
But  he  absolutely  refused ;  he  said  he  did  not 
like  it,  it  made  him  unwell,  made  people  speak 
ill  of  him,  and  it  did  not  matter  what  terms  were 
offered,  he  would  not  consent.  He  was  an  old 
man,  he  said,  and  he  could  not  find  out  how 
these  things  came ;  and,  in  short,  neither  scien- 
tific curiosity  nor  financial  consideration  would 
induce  him  to  consent  to  more  than  an  occasional 
sitting.  I  therefore  dropped  the  matter,  and  for 
some  years  I  discontinued  my  experiments. 

"  I  had  a  friend  who  often  accompanied  me  to 
Mr.  B.'s  studio,  where  she  had  been  photographed 
both  with  and  without  shadow  pictures  appear- 
ing on  the  background.  We  often  promised 
each  other  that  if  either  of  us  passed  over  we 
would  come  back  and  be  photographed  by 
Mr.  B.  if  possible,  in  order  to  prove  the  reality 
of  spirit  return.  Shortly  after  this  my  friend 
died.  But  it  was  not  till  nearly  four  years  after 
her  death,  at  the  request  of  a  friend  who  was 
very  anxious  to  know  whether  she  could  com- 
municate with  those  on  the  other  side,  that  I 
went  back  to  Mr.  B.'s  studio. 

"  He  had  always  been  slightly  clairvoyant  and 
clairaudiant.  He  told  me  that  a  few  days  before 


262  MY   FATHER 

I  had  written  asking  for  the  appointment,  my 
deceased  friend  had  appeared  in  the  studio  and 
told  him  that  I  was  coming.  This  reminded 
me  of  her  promise,  and  I  said  at  once  that  I 
hoped  he  would  be  able  to  photograph  her.  He 
said  he  didn't  know ;  he  was  rather  frightened  of 
her,  for  reasons  into  which  I  need  not  enter,  but 
if  she  came  he  would  see  what  he  could  do.  My 
friend  and  I  sat  together.  The  first  plate  was 
exposed,  nothing  appeared  in  the  background. 
When  the  second  plate  was  placed  in  the  camera 
Mr.  B.  nodded  with  a  quick  look  of  recognition. 
We  saw  nothing.  After  he  had  exposed  the 
second  plate,  and  before  he  developed  it,  he  asked 
us  to  change  seats.  We  did  this,  and  as  he  was 
exposing  the  third  plate  :  '  I  am  told  to  ask  you 
to  do  this,'  he  said,  and  then  when  he  closed  the 
shutter  he  said,  'it  is  Mrs.  M.'  On  the  fourth 
plate  there  appeared  a  picture  of  a  woman  whom 
I  had  never  seen  before,  and  whom  my  friend 
had  never  seen,  neither  had  Mr.  B.  When  the 
plates  came  to  be  developed  I  found  the  second 
and  third  plates  contained  unmistakable  like- 
nesses of  my  friend  Mrs.  M.  These  portraits 
were  immediately  recognised  by  my  friend  as 
unmistakable  likenesses  to  the  deceased  Mrs.  M. 
It  will  be  objected  that  she  had  frequently  been 
photographed  by  the  same  photographer,  and 
that  he  had  simply  faked  a  photograph  from 
one  of  his  old  negatives.  I  don't  believe  that 
this  is  possible,  for  these  portraits,  although 
recognised  immediately  by  everyone  who  knew 
her,  including  her  nearest  relative,  are  quite 
different  from  any  photograph  she  ever  had  taken 


INVISIBLE   BEINGS  263 

in  life.  She  certainly  never  was  photographed 
enveloped  in  white  drapery,  nor  do  I  believe  that 
Mr.  B.  had  any  negative  of  any  of  her  portraits 
in  his  possession.  But  I  fully  admit  that  from 
the  point  of  view  of  one  who  wishes  to  exclude 
every  possibility  of  error,  the  fact  that  Mrs.  M. 
had  been  frequently  photographed  in  her  life-time 
by  the  same  photographer,  renders  it  impossible 
to  regard  these  photographs  as  conclusive  testimony 
as  to  their  authenticity  as  a  photograph  of  a  form 
assumed  by  a  disembodied  spirit.  I  have  men- 
tioned that  on  the  fourth  plate  there  appeared  a 
portrait  of  an  unknown  female.  On  my  return  I 
was  showing  the  print  of  this  shadow  picture  to 
a  friend  when  she  startled  me  by  declaring  that 
the  shrouded  form  which  appeared  in  the 
photograph  behind  me  was  a  portrait  of  her 
mother  who  had  died  some  months  before  in 
Dublin.  I  had  never  seen  her  mother,  my  friend 
did  not  know  of  her  existence,  neither  did  the 
photographer,  nor  does  he  to  this  day.  It  was 
only  many  months  afterwards  that  I  was  able  to 
obtain  a  photograph  of  my  friend's  mother,  but 
it  was  taken  when  she  was  a  comparatively  young 
woman  and  bore  no  manner  of  resemblance  to 
the  portrait  of  the  lady  who  appeared  behind 
me.  Her  daughter,  however,  had  not  the 
slightest  hesitation  in  asserting  that  it  was  her 
mother,  and  that  she  had  recognised  her  instantly, 
and  that  it  was  a  very  good  portrait  of  her  as  she 
appeared  in  the  later  years  of  her  life.  This 
startled  me  not  a  little,  and  convinced  me  that  I 
had  a  good  prospect  of  attaining  some  definite 
results  as  an  outcome  of  my  experiments. 


264  MY   FATHER 

"Mr.  B., encouraged  by  this  success,  was  willing 
to  continue  his  experiments,  and  this  time  I 
insisted  upon  paying  him  for  his  work. 

"From  this  time  onward  the  occurrence  of 
photographs  that  were  recognisable  on  the  back- 
ground of  the  photographs  taken  by  Mr.  B., 
became  frequent.  Sometimes  the  plates  were 
marked  ;  but  not  invariably.  For  my  part,  I 
attach  comparatively  no  importance  to  the 
marking  of  plates  and  the  close  supervision  of 
the  operator.  The  test  of  the  genuineness  of  a 
photograph  that  is  obtained  when  the  unknown 
relative  of  an  unknown  sitter  appears  in  the 
background  of  the  photograph,  is  immeasurably 
superior  to  precautions  any  expert  conjurer  or 
trick  photographer  might  evade.  Again  and 
again  1  sent  friends  to  Mr.  B.,  giving  him  no 
information  as  to  who  they  were,  nor  telling  him 
anything  as  to  the  identity  of  the  persons' 
deceased  friend  or  relative  whose  portrait  they 
wished  to  secure,  and  time  and  again  when  the 
negative  was  developed,  the  portrait  would 
appear  in  the  background,  or  sometimes  in  front 
of  the  sitter.  This  occurred  so  frequently  that  I 
am  quite  convinced  of  the  impossibility  of  any 
fraud.  One  time  it  was  a  French  editor,  who 
finding  the  portrait  of  his  deceased  wife  appear 
on  the  negative  when  developed,  was  so  tran- 
sported with  delight  that  he  insisted  on  kissing 
the  photographer  Mr.  B.,  much  to  the  old  man's 
embarrassment.  On  another  occasion  it  was  a 
Lancashire  engineer,  himself  a  photographer,  who 
took  marked  plates  and  all  possible  precautions. 
He  obtained  portraits  of  two  of  his  relatives  and 


INVISIBLE    BEINGS  265 

another  of  an  eminent  personage  with  whom  he 
had  been  in  close  relations.  Or  again,  it  was  a 
near  neighbour,  who  going  as  a  total  stranger  to 
the  studio,  obtained  the  portrait  of  her  deceased 
daughter. 

"  I  attach  no  importance  whatever  to  the 
appearance  of  portraits  of  well-known  personages, 
which  might  easily  be  copied  from  existing 
pictures,  but  I  attach  immense  importance  to  the 
production  of  the  spirit  photographs  of  unknown 
relatives  of  sitters  who  are  unknown  to  the 
photographer,  who  receives  them  solely  as  a  lady 
or  gentleman  who  is  one  of  my  friends. 

"Although,  as  I  have  said,  I  do  not  attach 
much  importance  to  photographs  appearing  of 
well-known  men,  I  confess  that  1  was  rather 
impressed  by  one  of  my  most  recent  experi- 
ments. I  received  a  message  from  a  medium 
in  Sheffield,  who  is  unknown  to  me,  saying  that 
Cecil  Rhodes,  who  had  then  been  dead  about 
nine  months,  had  spoken  to  her  clairaudiantly, 
and  had  told  her  to  ask  me  to  go  to  the  photo- 
grapher's, and  that  he  would  come  and  be  photo- 
graphed. The  medium  was  a  stranger  to  me, 
and  I  confess  that  I  received  the  message  with 
considerable  scepticism.  However,  when  she 
came  up  to  town  1  accompanied  her  to  the 
studio.  She  declared  that  she  saw  Cecil  Rhodes, 
and  that  he  spoke  to  her,  and  that  he  was  stand- 
ing behind  me  when  the  plate  was  exposed. 
When  the  plate  came  to  be  developed,  although 
there  was  one  well -defined  figure  standing 
behind  me  and  several  other  faces  half  visible 
in  the  background,  there  was  no  portrait  of  Cecil 


266  MY   FATHER 

Rhodes.  I  was  not  surprised,  and  went  away. 
A  month  afterwards  I  went  to  have  another 
sitting  with  the  photographer.  I  chatted  with 
him  for  a  short  time,  and  then  he  left  the  room  for 
a  moment.  When  he  came  back  he  said  to  me  : 
'  There  is  a  round-faced  well  set-up  man  here 
with  a  short  moustache  and  a  dimple  in  his  chin. 
Do  you  know  him  ? '  '  No,'  I  said,  '  I  don't 
know  any  such  man.'  'Well,  he  seems  to  be 
very  busy  about  you.'  'Well,'  1  said,  'if  he 
comes  upstairs,  we  shall  see  what  we  can  get.' 
'  I  don't  know,'  said  he.  When  I  was  sitting,  he 
said,  '  There  he  is,  and  1  see  the  letter  R.  Is  it 
Robert  or  Richard,  do  you  think?'  'I  don't 
know  any  Robert  or  Richard/  I  said.  He  took 
the  picture.  He  then  proceeded  with  the  second 
plate,  and  said,  '  That  man  is  still  here,  and  I  see 
behind  him  a  country  road.  I  wonder  what  that 
means.'  He  went  into  the  dark  room,  and 
presently  came  out  and  said,  '  I  see  "  road  or 
roads."  Do  you  know  anyone  of  that  name?' 
'Of  course,'  I  said,  'Cecil  Rhodes.'  'Do  you 
mean  him  as  died  in  the  Transvaal  lately  ? '  said 
he.  I  said  'Yes.'  'Well,'  he  said,  'was  he  a 
man  like  that  ? '  '  Well,  he  had  a  moustache,'  I 
said.  And  sure  enough,  when  the  plate  was 
developed,  there  was  Cecil  Rhodes  looking 
fifteen  years  younger  than  when  he  died. 

"  Some  other  plates  were  exposed.  One  was 
entirely  blank,  on  two  others  the  mist  was 
formed  into  a  kind  of  clot  of  light,  but  no 
figure  was  visible,  the  fifth  had  a  portrait  of  an 
unknown  man,  and  on  the  sixth,  when  it  came 
to  be  developed,  there  was  the  same  portrait  of 


INVISIBLE   BEINGS  267 

Cecil  Rhodes  that  had  appeared  on  the  first,  but 
without  the  white  drapery  round  the  head. 

"  Of  course  it  may  be  said  that  it  was  well- 
known  I  was  connected  with  Cecil  Rhodes  and 
that  the  photographer  therefore  would  have  no 
difficulty  in  faking  a  portrait.  I  admit  all  that, 
and  therefore  I  would  not  have  introduced  this 
if  it  had  stood  alone  as  any  evidence  showing 
that  it  was  a  bona  fide  photograph  of  an  in- 
visible being.  But  it  does  not  stand  alone,  and 
I  have  almost  every  reason  to  believe  in  the 
almost  stupid  honesty,  if  I  may  use  such  a 
phrase,  of  the  photographer.  I  am  naturally 
much  interested  in  these  latest  portraits  of  the 
African  Colossus.  They  are,  at  any  rate, 
entirely  new,  no  such  portraits,  to  the  best  of 
my  knowledge  (and  I  have  made  a  collection  of 
all  I  can  lay  my  hands  on),  exactly  resembling 
those  portraits  which  I  obtained  at  Mr.  B.'s 
studio. 

"  I  will  conclude  the  account  of  my  experi- 
ments by  telling  how  I  secured  a  portrait  under 
circumstances  which  preclude  any  possibility  of 
fake  or  fraud.  One  day  when  I  entered  the 
studio,  Mr.  B.  said  to  me,  '  There  is  a  man  come 
with  you  who  has  been  here  before ;  he  came 
here  some  days  ago  when  I  was  by  myself;  he 
looked  very  wild,  and  he  had  a  gun  in  his  hand, 
and  I  did  not  like  the  look  of  him.  I  don't 
like  guns,  so  I  asked  him  to  go  away,  for  I  was 
frightened  of  the  gun,  and  he  went.  But  now 
he  has  come  with  you,  and  he  has  not  got  his 
gun  any  more,  so  we  will  let  him  stop.'  I  was 
rather  amused  at  the  old  man's  story  and  said, 


268  MY    FATHER 

6  Well,  see  if  you  can  photograph  him.'  '  I  don't 
know  as  I  can,'  he  said,  '  I  never  know  what  I 
can  get,' — which  is  quite  true,  for  often  the 
photographs  which  he  says  he  sees  clairvoyantly 
do  not  come  out  on  the  plate.  While  he  was 
photographing  me,  I  said  to  him,  '  If  you  can 
tell  this  man  to  go  away,  you  can  ask  him  his 
name.'  '  Yes,'  said  he.  *  Will  you  do  so  ? '  I 
said.  *  Yes,'  he  said.  After  seeming  to  ask  the 
question  mentally,  he  said,  '  He  says  his  name  is 
Piet  Botha.'  *  Piet  Botha,'  I  said,  '  I  know  no 
such  name.  There  are  Louis  and  Phillip,  and 
Chris  Botha.  I  have  never  heard  of  Piet;  still 
they  are  a  numerous  family  and  there  are  plenty 
of  Bothas  in  South  Africa,  and  it  will  be  interest- 
ing to  ask  General  Botha,  when  he  arrives, 
whether  he  knows  of  any  Piet  Botha.'  When 
the  negative  was  developed,  sure  enough  there 
appeared  behind  me  a  photograph  of  a  stalwart 
bearded  person,  who  might  have  been  a  Boer  or 
a  Russian  Moujik,  but  who  was  certainly  unknown 
to  me.  I  had  never  seen  a  portrait  of  anyone 
which  bore  any  resemblance  to  the  photograph. 

"When  General  Botha  arrived  I  did  not  get  an 
opportunity  of  asking  him  about  the  photograph, 
but  some  time  afterwards  I  asked  Mr.  Fischer, 
one  of  the  delegation  from  the  South  African 
Republics,  to  look  at  the  photograph,  and  if  he 
got  an  opportunity  to  ask  General  Botha  if  he 
knew  of  such  a  man  as  Piet  Botha.  Mr.  Fischer 
said  he  thought  he  had  seen  the  face  before,  but 
he  could  not  be  certain.  He  departed  with  the 
photograph.  Some  days  afterwards  Mr.  Wessels, 
a  member  of  the  Delegation  with  Mr.  Fischer, 


INVISIBLE   BEINGS  269 

came  down  to  my  cfilce.  He  said,  '  I  want  to 
know  about  that  photograph  that  you  gave  Mr. 
Fischer.'  '  Yes,'  I  said,  'what  about  it?'  'I 
want  to  know  where  you  got  it.'  I  told  him. 
He  replied  disdainfully,  '  I  don't  believe  in  such 
things ;  it  is  superstition ;  beside^,  that  man 
didn't  know  Mr.  B.  ;  he  has  never  been  in 
London  ;  how  could  he  come  there  ? '  '  What,' 
I  said,  '  do  you  know  him  ? '  '  Know  him,'  said 
Mr.  Wessels, '  he  is  my  brother-in-law.'  '  Really,' 
1  said  ;  '  what  did  they  call  him  ? '  '  Pietrus 
Johannes  Botha,  but  we  always  called  him  Piet 
for  short.'  <  Is  he  dead,  then  ? '  I  said.  «  Yes,' 
said  Mr.  Wessels,  '  he  was  the  first  Boer  officer 
who  was  killed  in  the  siege  of  Kimberley ;  but 
there  is  a  mystery  about  this ;  you  didn't  know 
him  ? '  '  No,'  I  said.  '  And  never  heard  of  him  ? ' 
'  No,'  I  said.  '  But,'  he  said,  *  I  have  the  man's 
portrait  in  my  house  in  South  Africa;  how 
could  you  get  it  ? '  '  But,'  I  said,  '  I  never  have 
had  it.'  '  I  don't  understand,'  said  he,  moodily, 
and  so  departed.  I  afterwards  showed  the  photo- 
graph to  another  Free-State  Boer  who  knew  Piet 
Botha  very  well,  and  he  had  not  the  slightest 
hesitation  in  declaring  that  it  was  an  unmistak- 
able likeness  of  his  dead  friend.1 

1  Referring  to  this  photo  elsewhere,  he  wrote  : — 
"  This  at  least  is  not  a  case  which  telepathy  can  explain.  Nor 
can  the  hypothesis  of  fraud  hold  water.  It  was  by  the  merest 
accident  that  I  asked  the  photographer  to  see  if  the  spirit  would 
give  his  name.  No  one  in  England,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able 
to  ascertain,  knew  that  any  Piet  Botha  ever  existed. 

"  As  if  to  render  all  explanation  of  fraud  or  contrivance  still 
more  incredible,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  Daily  Graphic  of 
October,  1889,  which  announced  that  a  Commandant  Botha  had 


270  MY   FATHER 

"  This  is  a  plain,  straightforward  narrative  of 
my  experiences  ;  they  are  still  going  on.  But  if 
I  continue  them  for  ever  I  don't  see  how  I  am 
going  to  obtain  better  results  than  those  which  I 
have  already  secured.  At  the  same  time,  I  must 
admit  that  when  I  have  taken  my  own  kodak  to 
the  studio  and  taken  a  photograph  immediately 
before  Mr.  B.  had  exposed  his  plate,  I  got  no 
results.  The  same  failure  occurred  with  another 
photographer,  whom  I  took,  who  took  his  own 
camera  and  his  own  plates,  and  took  a  photograph 
immediately  before  and  immediately  after  Mr.  B. 
had  exposed  his  plate,  and  secured  no  result.  Mr. 
B.'s  explanation  of  this  is  that,  he  thinks,  he  does 
in  some  way  or  other  magnetise,  as  he  terms  it, 
the  plate,  and  that  there  is  some  effluence  from 
his  hand  which  is  as  necessary  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  psychic  figure  as  the  developing 
liquid  is  for  the  development  of  an  ordinary 
photograph.  This  explanation  will  no  doubt 
be  derided  as,  I  presume,  wiseacres  would  have 
derided  the  first  photographers  when  they  in- 
sisted upon  the  necessity  of  darkness  whilst 
developing  their  plates.  What  I  hold  to  be 
established  is  that  in  the  presence  of  this  par- 
ticular individual  Mr.  B.,  who  at  present  is  the 
only  person  known  to  me  who  is  able  to  produce 
these  photographs,  it  is  possible  to  obtain  under 
test  conditions,  photographs  that  are  unmistak- 
able portraits  of  deceased  persons ;  the  said  de- 
been  killed  in  the  siege  of  Kimberley,  published  a  portrait  alleged 
to  be  that  of  the  dead  commandant,  which  not  only  does  not  bear 
the  remotest  resemblance  to  the  Piet  Botha  of  my  photograph, 
but  which  was  described  as  Commandant  Hans  Botha  !  " 


INVISIBLE   BEINGS  271 

ceased  persons  being  entirely  unknown  to  him, 
and  in  some  cases  equally  unknown  to  the  sitter. 
Neither  was  any  portrait  of  such  person  accessible 
either  to  the  sitter  or  the  photographer ;  neither 
was  either  the  sitter  or  the  photographer  conscious 
of  the  very  existence  of  these  persons,  whose 
identity  was  subsequently  recognised  by  their 
friends.1 

"  I  am  willing  to  admit  that  no  conceivable 
conditions  in  the  way  of  marking  plates  and 
supervising  the  actions  or  the  operations  of  the 
photographer  are  of  the  least  use ;  in  so  much  as 
an  expert  conjurer  can  easily  deceive  the  eye  of 
the  unskilled  observer.  But  what  I  do  maintain 
is  that  it  is  impossible  for  the  cleverest  trick 
photographer  and  the  ablest  conjurer  in  the 
world  to  produce  a  photograph,  at  a  moment's 
notice,  of  an  unknown  relative  of  an  unknown 
sitter,  this  portrait  to  be  unmistakably  recog- 
nisable by  all  survivors  who  knew  the  original  in 
life.  This,  Mr.  B.  has  done  again  and  again. 
And  it  seems  to  me  that  a  great  step  has  been 
made  towards  establishing  the  possibility  of 
verifying  by  photography  the  reality  of  the 
existence  of  other  intelligences  than  our  own." 

The  photographer  alluded  to  in  this  article  is 
Mr.  Boursnell.  He  died  shortly  after  it  was 
written,  and  although  Father  experimented  with 
others,  he  never  obtained  such  convincing  and 
satisfactory  results. 

1  Miss  Katharine  Bates  was  present  when  the  Piet  Botha 
photograph  was  taken  under  the  exact  conditions  specified  by  my 
Father. 


CHAPTER  XXIH 

THE    DAILY    PAPER 

"  It  is  my  aim  to  band  together  all  the  readers  of  The  Daily 
Paper  into  a  great  co-operative  partnership  for  the  achievement 
of  common  ends  ;  to  make  the  newspaper  itself  not  merely  a 
nerve  centre  for  the  collection  and  distribution  of  news,  but  for 
the  inspiration,  direction  and  organisation  of  the  moral,  social, 
political  and  intellectual  force  of  the  whole  community."  — 
W.  T.  STEAD.  Review  of  Reviews,  1903. 

IN  1903,  everything  seemed  to  show  that  at  last 
he  was  to  achieve  what  had  long  been  one  of  his 
greatest  ambitions.  This  was  to  have  a  daily 
paper  of  his  own — he  had  once  or  twice  made  the 
attempt.  In  1893  he  brought  forward  a  plea  for 
floating  a  daily  paper  in  a  Christmas  number, 
entitled,  Two  and  Two  make  Four — but  nothing 
came  of  it.  But  now  in  1903,  the  time  truly 
appeared  to  be  ripe.  So  he  thought,  until  Decem- 
ber, 1903,  and  then  there  came  a  warning.  Not  in 
the  same  manner  as  his  premonitions  already 
described.  This  came  in  the  form  of  a  dream — I 
give  it  in  his  own  words : — 

"  On    Saturday  night  last   (December    12th, 


272 


THE   DAILY   PAPER  273 

1903),  I  was  suddenly  wakened  up  by  a  very 
vivid  dream,  which  burnt  itself  into  my  mind 
more  than  any  dream  which  I  remember  having 
had  for  a  long  time.  I  had  been  very  much 
overdriven,  and  felt  the  strain  of  the  Daily 
Paper  more  than  I  perhaps  ought  to  have  done. 
I  dreamed  that  I  was  at  some  place  I  had  never 
been  in  before,  at  some  place  in  which  the  green 
hills  rose  up  directly  from  the  waters  of  a  lake, 
round  which  boarding-houses  and  hotels  were 
scattered.  When  I  approached  the  place  1  was 
startled  to  see  a  boy  walking  upon  the  clouds  in 
the  air.  He  seemed  to  find  no  difficulty  what- 
ever in  doing  so.  He  made  snowballs  out  of  the 
clouds,  and  pelted  the  people  down  below. 
Then  after  a  time,  getting  tired  of  this,  he 
descended  to  the  ground,  and  I  saw  with 
astonishment  that  he  had  short  stilts. 

"  The  scene  suddenly  changed,  and  another 
boy  stood  by  the  side  of  a  flying  machine, 
which  was  being  launched  on  a  carriage  with 
wheels,  down  a  steep  inclined  plane,  which  ran 
directly  into  the  waters  of  the  lake.  The  boy  in 
the  flying  machine  took  hold  of  the  lever  to 
start  the  engine,  but  before  it  was  launched  the 
other  boy  who  had  been  walking  in  the  clouds, 
read  something  which  sounded  almost  like  a 
funeral  service  over  him.  It  was  somewhat  to 
the  effect  that  in  some  enterprises  it  was  neces- 
sary to  risk  all,  and  that  if  life  was  sacrificed,  it 
was  well  spent  in  a  worthy  cause. 

"  Hardly  had  he  said  this,  when  the  airship 
was  unfastened  and  ran  rapidly  down  the  steep 

T 


274  MY   FATHER 

declivity  into  the  water,  much  as  boats  run  down 
into  the  water-chute  at  Earl's  Court.  Striking  the 
water,  it  rose  and  soared  triumphantly  into  the 
air.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  brilliant 
than  the  launching,  and  in  a  few  moments  the 
ship  was  flying  at  an  enormous  height  above  the 
earth,  quite  steadily.  We  were  all  congratu- 
lating ourselves  upon  the  success,  when  suddenly 
the  ship  began  to  wobble,  and  then  fell,  striking 
the  earth  with  a  horrid  crash,  killing  its  unfor- 
tunate occupant. 

"  All  of  which  seemed  to  me  very  much  like 
the  Daily  Paper.  I  was  the  occupant,  and  the 
ship  was  the  paper  itself,  which  we  shall  launch, 
but  the  effect  to  maintain  it  at  its  height  will 
break  me  down,  and  then  smash  will  come  every- 
thing." 

Everything  happened  as  in  the  dream.  The  Daily 
Paper  was  brilliantly  launched  in  January,  1904— 
but  the  strain  of  work  was  too  much  for  my  Father, 
and  after  seeing  the  first  Number  to  press,  he  broke 
down  completely.  He  managed  by  the  loyal 
support  of  those  around  him,  headed  by  my  brother 
Will,  to  keep  it  going  for  some  weeks,  but  it  soon 
became  apparent  that  it  was  impossible  to  con- 
tinue, and  on  February  9th  the  last  number 
appeared. 

A  sea  voyage  was  prescribed  as  the  only  thing 
likely  to  pull  him  round,  so  a  few  weeks  later  my 
Father  and  I  sailed  on  the  Athenic  for  South 
Africa. 

Till  we  reached  TenerifFe  he  was  ill,  but  worse 


THE   DAILY  PAPER  275 

than  the  illness  was  the  terrible  depression  caused 
by  the  feeling  that  he  had  failed  badly  in  carrying 
out  what  had  appeared  to  be  his  specially  appointed 
work.  Suddenly,  just  before  arriving  at  Teneriffe, 
he  came  on  deck  looking  more  like  himself  than  I 
had  seen  him  do  for  weeks.  I  was  naturally  de- 
lighted. Then  he  told  me  he  had  realised  what  a 
weak  and  infirm  soldier  he  was  to  bear  defeat  so 
badly.  "  The  Senior  Partner  knows  best,"  he  said, 
"  and  although  I  appear  to  have  staked  my  all  and 
lost,  it  is,  I  know  now,  for  the  best — I  expect  I 
needed  a  severe  lesson,  and  I  have  had  it.  I  feel 
there  is  work  for  me  in  South  Africa — and  so  the 
Senior  Partner  is  thus  forcing  me  to  go." 

After  this  there  was  no  trace  of  the  former 
depression,  and  for  the  rest  of  the  voyage  he  was 
full  of  life  and  vigour — working  hard  all  the 
morning — dictating  and  reading — for  an  hour  he 
studied  French  with  me — after  lunch  he  slept — and 
nearly  all  the  rest  of  the  time  was  spent  playing 
with  the  children. 

The  visit  to  Africa  was  full  of  interest.  We 
met  a  great  many  people,  British  and  Boer,  and 
heard  the  views  of  both  sides  on  the  late  war. 
He  urged  everywhere  a  policy  of  peace  and 
conciliation,  and  did  all  he  possibly  could  to 
convince  the  Boers  of  the  good  faith  of  the 
British  Liberals  and  their  sincerity  in  promising 
the  Boers  full  control  in  South  Africa — if  only 
they  would  accept  the  grant  of  independence  and 
self-government  under  the  British  flag. 

He  was  violently  denounced  by  the  Jingoes, 

T  2 


276  MY   FATHER 

but  he  felt  it  was  his  mission,  and  that  the  reason 
he  was  in  South  Africa  at  that  moment  was  that 
he  might  endeavour  to  make  the  Boers  realise  the 
privileges  enjoyed  by  everyone  who  lived  under 
the  British  flag.  He  has  not  had  long  to  wait 
for  his  vindication. 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

HIS       BELIEF      IN       PRAYER 

"This  is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world,  even  our 
faith."— I.  John  5,  4. 

"  We  must  trust  God  to  show  us  the  way  when  the  time  comes. 
It  is  a  good  saying ;  until  you  have  learned  to  trust  wholly,  you 
need  not  expect  to  be  trusted  wholly." — W.  T.  STEAD  (private 
letter). 

FATHER  believed  in  prayer.  "  He  prayeth  most 
who  loveth  most "  was  true  for  him.  He  loved 
humanity  and  longed  to  help  it,  and  because  he 
did  so  he  prayed  to  the  Senior  Partner  to  help 
him. 

When  the  call  came  to  go  forth  into  the  world 
and  fight,  whether  for  the  womanhood  of  his 
country,  for  Peace,  or  any  of  the  many  causes 
he  fought  for  during  his  life — he  prayed. 

I  remember  when  quite  a  small  child,  on  the 
occasion  of  his  first  visit  to  Russia,  the  pony  trap 
which  was  to  take  him  to  the  station,  waiting  at 
the  front  door,  whilst  we  all  gathered  in  the 
drawing-room  and  Father  prayed  for  guidance 


277 


278  MY   FATHER 

and  help,  and  ended  his  prayer  by  repeating  the 
23rd  Psalm. 

Prayer  with  him  was  no  mere  perfunctory 
repetition  of  words.  It  was  a  real  application 
to  the  Power  he  called  the  "  Senior  Partner  "  for 
help  and  guidance. 

He  believed  in  prayer  meetings  and  urged  that 
prayer  meetings  should  be  held  in  Churches  and 
Chapels  all  over  the  country,  whenever  England 
stood  in  need  of  help  and  guidance.  At  the 
little  Congregational  Church  at  Hay  ling  Island  he 
always  stayed  for  the  prayer  meeting  and  prayed. 

Many  and  many  a  time  when  the  call  came 
to  address  some  public  meeting  he  surprised  the 
audience  and  those  around  him  on  the  platform 
when  he  rose  to  speak,  with  the  words  "  Let  us 
pray,"  and  then  simply  and  directly  he  would 
appeal  to  God  for  guidance  and  help. 

He  was  often  encumbered  with  cares  and  puzzled 
as  to  what  to  do,  but  he  never  doubted  the  Senior 
Partner  would  make  the  way  clear  in  His  own  good 
time. 

In  his  incursion  into  the  psychic  realm,  as  in 
everything  else,  he  prayed  for  guidance.  I  was 
with  him  at  many  seances,  and  I  only  remember 
one  or  two  at  which  he  did  not  open  with  a  prayer 
for  direction  and  protection — for  he  felt  in  this 
work,  perhaps  more  than  any  other,  there  was  very 
great  need  of  help  and  guidance. 

When  some  great  cause  called  him  and  he  had  to 
go  forth  and  battle,  he  prayed  and  looked  to  others 
to  pray  also  ;  with  one  friend  this  was  particularly 


HIS   BELIEF   IN    PRAYER         279 

the  case.  To  this  friend  I  am  indebted  for  the 
following  word  picture  which  shows  by  one  concrete 
instance  how  firmly  he  believed  in  the  power  of 
prayer. 

When  the  Welsh  Revival  broke  out  in  1904,  he 
was  deeply  impressed,  and  after  going  to  Wales  to 
see  for  himself,  he  published  a  pamphlet  on  the 
Revival — as  he  wrote  each  chapter,  this  friend 
prayed.  200,000  copies  were  sold  in  England  and 
over  a  half  million  in  America.  Following  on  this 
pamphlet,  from  all  over  England  came  requests  for 
him  to  speak  on  the  Revival — this,  however,  was 
physically  impossible  at  the  time. 

"In  March,  1905,"  writes  this  friend,  "the 
National  Free  Church  Council  meetings  were 
held  in  Manchester,  and  your  father  was  asked  to 
speak  at  a  men's  meeting  in  the  Free  Trade  Hall. 
At  once  he  wrote  to  me,  asking  if  I  could  be 
present,  as  he  had  only  consented  to  speak  on 
condition  that  some  women  were  there,  and  as 
he  had  to  speak  on  the  Revival  he  very  much 
desired  my  presence.  He  was  coming  to  stay 
with  us,  so  of  course  I  gladly  promised  to  be 
present.  It  was  a  great  meeting,  over  3,000  men 
present — the  great  building  packed  to  its  utmost 
capacity.  The  question  with  us  was,  Will  the 
Revival  break  out  to-night  ? — all  else  was 
swallowed  up  in  that.  It  was  his  first  public 
appearance  after  the  war,  and  the  audience  rose 
to  greet  him.  It  was  clear  they  had  come  to 
hear  him, — they  rose  to  their  feet,  old  white- 
headed  men,  brilliant  young  ones,  they  waved 


280  MY   FATHER 

and  clapped  and  cheered  and  cheered.  They 
had  forgotten  the  Revival,  they  were  cheering 
the  man  who  opposed  the  Boer  War.  The 
Free  Churches  were  coming  to  their  senses,  he 
was  as  unmoved  by  their  cheers  as  he  had  been 
by  their  frowns  in  the  dark  days,  and  at  last, 
lifting  up  his  hand  in  his  commanding  way  for 
silence,  to  the  overwhelming  surprise  of  that 
audience,  he  cried,  'Let  us  pray.'  Immediately 
the  atmosphere  changed,  we  were  lifted  into 
the  presence  of  the  '  Most  High,'  an  awed 
hush  stole  over  that  assembly,  spiritual  forces 
began  to  work,  and  when  at  the  close  of  the 
prayer  he  said,  '  Now  we  will  sing  one  verse  of 
"  Lord  I  hear  of  showers  of  blessing,"  the 
thousands  of  voices  thundered  the  old  words 
out  6  Even  me,  even  me '  '  Let  some  droppings 
fall  on  me.'  They  were  a  prayer  tense  and 
earnest,  as  from  the  heart  of  one  man.  Then 
he  began  to  speak,  giving  me  one  look  first, 
which  1  knew  meant  pray.  Every  breath  was 
a  prayer.  I  sat  in  a  quiet  corner  unseen,  with 
locked  hands  and  the  tears  dripping  on  them, 
pleading,  pleading,  God  would  use  him  as  the 
instrument  to  draw  those  men  that  night. 
Deeper  and  deeper  grew  the  feeling  as  he  told, 
quietly  and  briefly  the  story  of  what  he  had 
seen  and  heard,  and  what  he  believed  God  was 
doing  in  Wales  and  questioning  was  He  going 
to  do  it  in  England  ?  My  pleading  had  become 
a  veritable  agony  ;  the  Holy  Spirit's  brooding 
presence  an  awesome  thing  in  its  solemn  in- 
tensity, when  suddenly  he  said  something  that 


HIS    BELIEF   IN   PRAYER          281 

held  me  and  drew  me.  I  lifted  my  head  and 
listened — was  transfixed  by  his  face  and  words,— 
stopped  my  pleading  and  followed  him  intently. 
Once  he  looked  uneasily  towards  me.  I  did  not 
know  what  he  meant.  His  words  were  burning 
with  fire  and  beauty.  Then  something  happened  ; 
he  was  swung  off  in  another  direction.  Men 
caught  their  breath,  the  tension  lessened,  he  sat 
down,  and  though  every  soul  was  deeply  moved, — 
scores  of  their  eyes  were  wet,  yet  the  tongues 
of  flame  were  held  back;  they  came  not  that 
night.  And  we  sat,  two  sad  and  disappointed 
creatures,  and  when  at  last  the  meeting  was 
over  and  he  came  down  from  the  platform  and 
reaching  my  side,  he  seized  my  arm  fiercely, 
saying,  '  You  were  praying  for  me  to-night, 
were  you  not  ? '  I  nodded.  '  And  you  stopped 
in  the  middle  of  my  speech.  Oh,  why  did  you, 
why  did  you  ?  All  the  power  went  out  of  me, 
I  could  feel  it  go,  and  could  not  imagine  what 
was  the  matter  with  me,  till  I  glanced  at  you 
and  saw  you  listening.  Never,  never  do  that 
again.  To  think  we  might  have  been  in  the 
thick  of  the  Revival  this  very  night,  if  you  had 
been  faithful.' " 


CHAPTER  XXV 

WILLIE 

"  His  was  a  noble  life,  brief  in  span,  but  full  of  service  from 
his  boyhood  up."— W.  T.  STEAD. 

THREE  years  after  his  African  visit  he  watched 
the  passing  of  his  dearly  loved  eldest  son,  and  wept 
beside  the  beloved  body,  which  would  no  more  be 
used  by  the  loving,  tender  spirit  which  for  thirty- 
three  years  had  worn  it  as  its  earthly  dress. 

There  had  ever  been  a  great  love  between  father 
and  son.  As  soon  as  he  was  old  enough  to  under- 
stand anything  Willie  took  an  interest  in  his  father's 
work,  and  his  greatest  ambition  was  to  be  an  editor 
like  his  father.  He  became  his  father's  secretary 
when  scarcely  into  his  teens  and  from  that  time  till 
he  was  twenty-one,  when  he  became  private 
secretary  to  Mr.  E.  T.  Cook l— the  then  editor  of 
the  Daily  News,  he  was  his  father's  right  hand. 

Soon  after  he  became  Mr.  Cook's  secretary  he 

married,  and  for  a  few  years  my  Father  and  he  did 

not  come  into  such   close  touch  as  before.     But 

when  the  former's  health  broke  down  through  the 

1  Sir  E.  T.  Cook. 


282 


WILLIE. 


Elliot,  d:  I'ry. 


WILLIE  283 

strain  of  the  Daily  Paper,  Willie  took  the  position 
of  editor  and  piloted  the  paper  through  its  short  life 
with  splendid  enthusiasm  and  indomitable  courage. 
From  that  time  onward  till  the  day  of  his  death, 
they  were  again  in  very  close  touch,  and  my  Father 
depended  upon  Will's  help  in  a  great  many  ways. 

"  Last  year,"  my  Father  wrote  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  "when  I  undertook  the  mission  round 
Europe  and  America,  before  the  Peace  Congress,  I 
made  over  to  him  full  responsibility  for  the  editing 
of  the  Review  of  Reviews  in  my  absence.  Nobly, 
as  always,  he  responded  to  my  appeal,  although 
little  as  I  knew  it,  the  call  made  serious  inroads 
both  upon  his  business  and  his  strength.  He  was 
always  so  cheerful,  buoyant,  so  delighted  to  help, 
that  I  little  knew  at  what  a  sacrifice  I  was  being 
helped." 

On  the  very  Saturday  on  which  Willie  passed  on, 
Father  had  come  up  to  town  from  Hayling  to  meet 
him  at  night,  when  the  temporary  appointment  of 
Acting  Editor  was  to  have  been  made  permanent, 
and  Will  was  to  have  been  formally  appointed,  as 
his  Father's  successor,  in  the  editorial  chair. 

My  Father  did  not  hear  of  his  son's  illness  till  a 
quarter  past  eleven  in  the  morning.  Down  to  a 
quarter  to  eleven  at  night  he  was  absolutely 
incredulous  that  his  life  was  in  danger.  At  a 
quarter  past  eleven  he  saw  him  die. 

It  was  a  bitter  blow,  and  for  some  time  sorrow 
and  grief  filled  his  soul. 

But  it  was  not  long  before  he  realised  that  Will's 
passing  was  to  bring  to  him  the  assurance  of  the 


284  MY   FATHER 

possibility  of  intercourse  with  those  who  have  gone 
on  before. 

"  No  one  could  deceive  me,"  he  said,  "  by 
fabricating  spurious  messages  from  my  beloved 
son."  And  nothing  that  can  be  written  will  carry 
more  conviction  than  his  own  testimony. 

Speaking  at  Halifax  eighteen  months  later,  he 
said  : — 

"  Eighteen  months  ago  my  eldest  son  passed 
into  the  other  world.  I  heard  his  first  cry  as  a 
new-born  infant.  I  caught  his  last  sigh  as  he 
passed  into  the  unseen.  I  had  always  said  I 
would  never  make  my  final  pronouncement  on 
the  truths  of  Spiritualism  until  someone  near 
and  dear  in  my  own  family  passed  into  the 
great  beyond.  Then  I  should  know  whether 
Spiritualism  stood  the  test  of  a  great  bereave- 
ment, bringing  life  and  immortality  to  light. 
And  I  am  here  to  tell  you  that  the  reality  of 
my  son's  continued  existence,  and  of  his  tender 
care  for  me,  have  annulled  the  bitterness  of  death. 

"  You  remember  what  Lowell  said  :  *  Console 
me  if  you  will,  but  all  the  consoling  can  never 
make  death  other  than  death.'  I  can  say 
Spiritualism  has  made  death  other  than  death 
for  me.  That  boy  had  been  for  thirty-three 
years  my  joy  and  my  pride.  I  had  trained  him 
in  hope  that  he  would  succeed  me  and  carry  on 
my  work.  The  very  day  he  died  I  came  up  at 
11.30  a.m.  to  appoint  him  as  my  assistant-editor. 
That  night  at  11.30  p.m.  I  saw  him  die.  The 
blow  was  so  sudden.  I  did  not  know  he  was 


WILLIE  285 

seriously  ill.  When  1  saw  him  breathe  his  last 
I  knew  our  Father  had  other  plans,  and  that  the 
boy  I  had  trained  to  work  for  me  here  was  going 
to  work  for  me  on  the  other  side.  And  that 
hope  has  been  gloriously  fulfilled.  The  telephone 
helps  us  to  realise  this  kind  of  communication. 
When  my  boy  was  here,  our  offices  were  con- 
nected by  telephone,  and  it  is  much  the  same 
now.  He  writes  to  me  through  several  mediums, 
he  shows  himself  to  my  friends.  I  myself  have 
seen  his  materialised  face.  One  friend  has  seen 
him  at  least  three  times  fully  materialised,  as 
was  our  Lord  after  His  resurrection.  He  is  here 
to-night  beside  me.  I  am  as  sure  of  that  as  I 
am  of  the  fact  that  I  am  speaking  to  you.  When 
I  realise  the  difference  it  makes  to  have  this 
knowledge,  and  to  be  without  it,  I  feel  I  must 
testify  to  you  as  to  the  reality  of  the  unseen 
world  around  us." 

In  his  message  on  December  15th,  1911,  the  day 
after  the  anniversary  of  his  "  passing  on,"  his  birth- 
day, he  called  it,  Will  wrote  the  following  message, 
and  as  it  explains  partially  why  it  is  impossible  for 
those  communicating  from  the  other  world  to  give 
more  definite  details  of  their  life  and  surroundings, 
I  give  it  here  : 

"December  I5th,  1911. 

W.  Stead,  jun.  My  dearest  Father.  My 
birthday  message  is  ever  the  same.  Tis  better 
on  before.  When  I  think  of  the  ideas  that  I 
had  of  the  life  I  am  now  living,  when  I  was  in 
the  world  in  which  you  are,  I  marvel  at  the 


286  MY   FATHER 

hopeless  inadequacy  of  my  dreams.  The  reality 
is  so  much,  so  very  much  greater  than  ever  I 
imagined.  You  and  I  and  all  people  that  on 
earth  do  dwell,  are  too  apt  to  imagine  this  life  as 
only  an  extension  of  the  old  life.  Everything  is 
to  be  as  it  is,  only  more  so.  But  everything  is 
not  as  it  was.  It  is  a  new  life,  the  nature  of 
which  you  cannot  understand,  although  it  is 
possible  to  explain  something  of  it  by  analogy. 
Imagine  yourself  a  caterpillar  on  a  cabbage  leaf. 
'  Things  will  be  better  on  before  you,'  you  say  to 
the  caterpillar.  But  what  does  '  better '  mean  to 
the  caterpillar  ?  More  cabbages,  ever  more 
cabbages,  and  ever  cabbages ;  more  sunshine, 
less  rain,  and  no  hungry  birds  to  eat  you  up. 
All  caterpillary  ideas  limited  by  the  sensations 
and  aspirations  of  a  cabbage  world.  After  a 
time  the  caterpillar  becomes  a  butterfly.  But 
how  can  the  butterfly  explain  to  the  caterpillars 
the  conditions  of  his  new  life,  the  buoyancy  of 
flight,  the  joy  of  love,  the  sweetness  of  the 
honey-flowers.  These  essentials  of  the  new 
existence  are  incapable  of  being  explained  to  the 
caterpillar  mind,  for  the  vocabulary  of  the 
cabbage  would  contain  no  words  capable  of 
conveying  concepts  entirely  alien  to  the  cater- 
pillar's senses.  So  it  is  with  me.  I  tell  you  it  is 
better  on  before,  always,  and  far  better  than  I 
dreamed  of.  But  when  I  come  down  to  tell  you 
wherein  the  betterness  consists,  I  feel  like  the 
butterfly  sitting  by  the  caterpillar  and  en- 
deavouring to  explain  what  sight  is,  what  light 
is,  what  flight  is,  wherein  lies  the  joy  of  love." 


CHAPTER  XXVI 


JULIA'S  BUREAU 


"  I  have  been  seeking,  not  to  arrive  at  a  given  geographical 
point  which  everyone  admitted  must  exist.  I  have  had  to  search 
and  ascertain  in  the  first  place  whether  the  Other  World  has  any 
actual  existence  at  all.  Its  non-existence  is  stoutly  affirmed  by 
a  few,  accepted  as  unknowable  by  many.  Even  those  who 
nominally  profess  to  believe  that  it  exists,  hold  their  faith  so 
timorously  that  they  shrink  from  putting  it  to  the  simple  test  of 
observation  and  experiment.  The  Other  World,  for  the  immense 
majority  of  men,  orthodox  or  unbelievers,  has  become  a  kind  of 
lost  Atlantis  lurking  unknown  beneath  the  Saragossa  Sea, 
cumbered  with  the  debris  of  a  thousand  religious  creeds.  Yet  if 
the  almost  universal  tradition  of  the  race  has  any  foundation  in 
fact;  if  the  speculations  of  the  greatest  philosophers  and  the 
unwavering  testimony  of  the  founders  of  all  religions  be  true  ; 
the  existence  of  the  Other  World  affects  us,  every  man  and 
woman  of  us,  most  nearly.  For  if  beyond  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  there  lies  another  world  into  which  all  the  children  of 
men  are  destined  in  a  few  years  to  pass,  it  seems  the  height  of 
irrationality  to  treat  with  indifference  or  contempt,  the  attempt 
to  ascertain  some  authentic  evidence  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
country  to  which  we  are  all  bound,  and  the  extent  to  which  our 
lot  there  is  affected  by  our  conduct  here." — W.  T.  STEAD. 

"  You  see  the  sorrowing  people  on  your  side. 

"  /  see  them  on  my  side.  Can  we  do  nothing  to  help  those 
who  love  so  greatly  to  get  into  touch  with  each  other  1 " — JULIA 
A.  AMES. 

287 


288  MY   FATHER 

In  1894  Julia  wrote  : 

"  I  want  to  ask  you  if  you  can  help  me  at  all 
in  a  matter  in  which  I  am  much  interested.  I 
have  long  wanted  to  establish  a  place  where 
those  who  have  passed  over  could  communicate 
with  the  loved  ones  left  behind.  At  present  the 
world  is  full  of  spirits  longing  to  speak  to  those 
from  whom  they  have  been  parted,  just  as  I 
longed  to  speak  to  you,  but  without  finding  a 
hand  to  enable  them  to  write.  It  is  a  strange 
spectacle.  On  your  side,  souls  full  of  anguish 
for  bereavement ;  on  this  side,  souls  full  of  sad- 
ness because  they  cannot  communicate  with 
those  whom  they  love.  What  can  be  done  to 
bring  these  sombre,  sorrow-laden  persons 
together?  To  do  so  requires  something  which 
we  cannot  supply.  You  must  help.  But  how  ? 
It  is  not  impossible.  And  when  it  is  done,  death 
will  have  lost  its  sting  and  the  grave  its  victory. 
The  Apostle  thought  this  was  done.  But  the 
grave  has  not  been  so  easily  defeated,  and  death 
keeps  its  sting.  Who  can  console  us  for  the  loss 
of  our  beloved  ?  Only  those  who  can  show  us 
that  they  are  not  lost,  but  are  with  us  more  than 
ever.  Do  you  not  think  I  have  been  much  more 
-  with  my  friend  since  I  put  off  my  flesh  than  I 
used  to  be  ?  Why,  I  dwell  with  her  in  a  way 
that  before  was  quite  impossible.  I  was  never 
more  with  her  than  I  have  been  since  I  came  to 
this  side.  But  she  would  not  have  known  it, 
nor  would  you  have  heard  from  me  at  all,  but 
for  the  accident  of  your  meeting  her ! 


JULIA'S   BUREAU  289 

"  What  is  wanted  is  a  bureau  of  communi- 
cation between  the  two  sides.  Could  you  not 
establish  some  such  sort  of  office  with  one  or  more 
trustworthy  mediums  ?  If  only  it  were  to 
enable  the  sorrowing  on  earth  to  know,  if  only 
for  once,  that  their  so-called  dead  live  nearer 
them  than  ever  before,  it  would  help  to  dry 
many  a  tear  and  soothe  many  a  sorrow.  I  think 
you  could  count  upon  the  eager  co-operation  of 
all  on  this  side. 

"  We  on  this  side  are  full  of  joy  at  the  hope 
of  this  coming  to  pass.  Imagine  how  grieved 
we  must  be  to  see  so  many  whom  we  love, 
sorrowing  without  hope,  when  those  for  whom 
they  sorrow  are  trying  in  vain  by  every  means  to 
make  them  conscious  of  their  presence.  And 
many  also  are  racked  with  agony,  imagining  that 
their  loved  ones  are  lost  in  hell,  when  in  reality 
they  have  been  found  in  the  all-embracing  arms 
of  the  love  of  God.  It  is  the  most  important 
thing  there  is  to  do.  For  it  brings  with  it  the 
trump  of  the  Archangel,  when  those  that  were 
in  their  graves  shall  awake  and  walk  forth  once 
more  among  men. 

"  I  was  at  first  astonished  to  learn  how  much 
importance  the  spirits  attach  to  the  communica- 
tions which  they  are  allowed  to  have  with  those 
on  earth.  I  can,  of  course,  easily  understand, 
because  I  feel  it  myself — the  craving  there  is  to 
speak  to  those  whom  you  loved,  and  whom  you 
love  ;  but  it  is  much  more  than  this.  What  they 
tell  me  on  all  sides,  and  especially  my  dear  guides, 
is  that  the  time  is  come  when  there  is  to  be  a 

u 


290  MY   FATHER 

great  spiritual  awakening  among  the  nations, 
and  that  the  agency  which  is  to  bring  this  about 
is  the  sudden  and  conclusive  demonstration,  in 
every  individual  case  which  seeks  for  it,  of  the 
reality  of  the  spirit,  of  the  permanence  of  the 
soul,  and  the  immanence  of  the  Divine." 

But  fifteen  years  were  to  pass  before  the  way 
was  to  open  out,  and  Father  was  to  feel  that  the 
call  had  truly  come  and  the  means  were  to  be 
forthcoming,  for  him  to  carry  out  Julia's  wish 
and  found  a  Bureau  of  communication. 

During  the  autumn  of  1908  Julia  wrote  telling 
him  that  the  time  had  now  come  to  start  the 
Bureau,  and  that  the  money  necessary  would  be 
forthcoming. 

On  October  15th,  1908,  she  wrote : 

"  About  the  Bureau,  that  is  all  right.  You 
will  get  the  money  you  need  for  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Bureau  on  a  proper  basis." 

October  19th,  1908,  she  wrote:— 

"  I  am  told  off  for  this  work.  1  must  do  it. 
It  is  in  the  plan.  We  do  not  see  all  the  plan 
any  more  than  you.  But  we  see  our  duty 
written  in  it  and  part  of  my  duty  is  to  help  you 
to  get  the  Bureau  established.  And  you  will 
be  helped  to  do  so  soon ;  very  soon  it  seems 
to  us." 

A  few  days  later  she  asked  how  much  money 
would  be  necessary,  and  when  told  a  thousand 
pounds,  wrote,  "  You  will  get  it.  It  will  come 


JULIA'S   BUREAU  291 

from  America,  and  it  will  come  in  such  a  way 
that  you  will  know  it  is  the  money  for  the 
Bureau." 

In  the  beginning  of  December  Father  wrote  an 
article  entitled  "  How  I  know  the  Dead  Return," 
in  which  he  gave  an  account  of  his  own 
experiences,  and  reasons  for  his  belief.  It  was 
published  in  the  Fortnightly  Review,  the  New  York 
American,  in  La  Revue,  in  Australia  and  in  India. 

On  December  20th,  Julia  wrote : 

"  The  time  has  come  and  I  think  that  before 
Xmas  you  will  see  your  way  clear." 

As  a  result  of  his  article  in  the  New  York 
American — Mr.  Hearst  telegraphed  asking  him  to 
become  Special  Correspondent  to  that  paper,  and 
offering  him  £500  a  year. 

This  offer  came  on  Christmas  Eve — he  came 
home  and  told  me  about  it,  and  said,  "  I  wonder 
if  this  is  the  money  Julia  means,  but  we  want 
a  thousand  and  this  is  only  £500 — anyhow,  let's  go 
double  or  quits,"  and  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Hearst's 
London  Correspondent  saying  he  would  accept 
on  condition  he  received  £1,000  a  year. 

On  Christmas  day  Julia  wrote  : — 

"  I  congratulate  you,  and  also  myself,  upon  the 
fulfilment  of  what  I  promised  you.  You  need 
have  no  fear  about  the  results  of  the  reference  to 
New  York.  They  will  agree." 

By  the  middle  of  January  there  was  no  answer, 
but  Julia  was  triumphantly  confident,  and  on  the 

u  2 


292  MY  FATHER 

19th  January  a  cable  arrived  from  America  agreeing 
tp  pay  the  £1,000,  and  I  have  before  me  as  I  write 
the  telegram  I  received  from  Father  that  day  sent 
from  Hayling,  where  he  was  staying  at  the  time. 
It  reads  as  follows  : — 

"  Hayling  Island — 10  o'c.     Received  here  10.40  a.m. 

"  Estelle  Stead, 

5  Smith  Square,  Westminster. 

Doxology  Julia  vindicated.     American  accepts." 

So  he  founded  Julia's  Bureau — and  founded  it 
for  one  purpose,  and  one  purpose  only — to  enable 
those  who  had  lost  their  dead,  who  were  sorrowing 
over  friends  and  relatives,  to  get  into  touch  with 
them  again  ;  to  minister  to  the  aching  heart,  not  to 
satisfy  the  inquisitive  brain. 

Referring  to  this,  my  Father  wrote  : — 

"  The  question  whether  it  is  possible  to  bridge 
the  grave  and  open  communications  with  those 
who  have  passed  to  the  other  side,  is  one  which 
most  people  have  answered  in  the  negative.  But 
in .  all  ages  there  have  been  some  who  have 
answered  not  less  positively  in  the  affirmative, 
and  as  the  latter  class,  although  in  a  minority, 
include  the  founders  of  the  religions  and  the 
writers  of  the  Bibles  of  the  world,  it  can  hardly 
be  regarded  as  unreasonable  to  endeavour  to 
ascertain  the  truth  by  a  series  of  carefully- 
conducted  experiments,  with  carefully-selected 
subjects,  on  certain  clear  and  well-defined  lines. 

"  Who  are  the  persons  with  whom  such  experi- 
ments should  be  conducted?  They  should  be 


JULIA'S   BUREAU  293 

selected  exclusively  from  those  who  with  single- 
souled  sincerity  desire  to  communicate  with  those 
whom  they  love,  from  whom  they  have  been 
divided  by  death.  They  should  not  be  those 
who  despair  or  who  mourn  as  those  who  have  no 
hope. 

"  When  so  many  long  to  hear  again  a  word  of 
greeting  from  lips  that  have  been  closed  in  death, 
it  is  absurd  to  waste  time  upon  those  who  have 
no  such  desire.  But  it  is  not  enough  that  the 
desire  should  be  there.  Its  existence  should  be 
demonstrated  by  action.  Many  people  say  they 
desire  this  or  that,  but  if  they  refuse  to  raise 
their  hands  in  order  to  grasp  it  or  to  make  any 
enquiry  as  to  how  they  can  secure  it,  no  one  can 
regard  them  as  serious.  What  test  can  be  im- 
posed to  demonstrate  the  sincerity  of  the  sug- 
gested subject  ? 

"  Fortunately  the  answer  is  not  far  to  seek. 
If  any  one  earnestly  desires  to  communicate  with 
those  whom  he  loves  in  the  other  world,  he  must 
be  anxious  to  hear  something  of  the  testimony 
of  those  who  claim  to  have  succeeded  in  estab- 
lishing such  communications.  In  other  words, 
one  test  of  sincerity  in  this  quest  is  a  determina- 
tion to  read  the  best  works  that  have  been 
written  by  those  who  have  made  the  question 
a  subject  of  earnest  study  and  patient  investiga- 
tion. 

"  Among  such  books  may  be  mentioned  : — 
'The  Letters  of  Julia.' 
'  The  Writings  of  Stainton  Moses.' 
6  Mr.  Myer's  "  Human  Personality."  ' 


294  MY   FATHER 

'  The  Writings  of  Lombroso,  Flammarion, 
Wallace  and  Crookes.' 

"It  is  not  necessary  to  have  read  all  these 
books  to  be  accepted  as  a  suitable  subject.  But 
to  have  read  none  of  them  is primd facie  evidence 
that  the  desire  to  communicate  was  not  very 
keen — unless,  of  course,  there  had  been  no  oppor- 
tunity to  obtain  these  books  or  any  of  them. 

"  To  remove  the  latter  objection,  there  has 
been  established,  at  Mowbray  House,  Norfolk 
Street,  London,  a  small  library  of  books  relating 
to  the  subjects,  to  which  any  person  may  become 
a  subscriber  by  the  payment  of  a  guinea  a  year." 

The  Bureau  was  formally  opened  on  April  24th, 
1909,  with  Mowbray  House  as  its  London  Office, 
and  Cambridge  House,  Wimbledon — a  house  sur- 
rounded by  a  beautiful  garden— as  its  "  Inner 
Sanctuary."  A  gathering  of  many  of  the  workers 
and  sympathisers,  chosen  by  Julia  and  my  Father  to 
undertake  the  great  task  that  lay  ahead,  was  held 
at  Cambridge  House,  where  a  seance  was  held  that 
they  might  commune  with  the  workers  on  the  Other 
Side.  It  was  opened  by  an  address  by  my  Father, 
after  which  he  read  messages  from  Julia,  Mr.  Myers 
and  others,  including  one  from  a  "  High  Spirit "  on 
the  spirit  in  which  the  Bureau  should  be  conducted, 
which  is  given  here  :— 

"  April  Wnd,  1909. 

"  Message  as  to  the  spirit  in  which  the  Bureau 
should  be  conducted.  An  auto-message  from  a 
High  Spirit. 

"My  dear  disciples.  What  are  you  meeting  to  do? 


IN  THE  GARDEN  AT  CAMBRIDGE  HOUSE. 


JULIA'S    BUREAU  295 

"  To  make  manifest  the  invisible  things  of  God 
to  the  senses  of  men.  It  is  an  undertaking 
which  all  men  have  desired  from  of  old  time. 
But  their  senses  have  been  holden  that  they 
could  not  perceive.  And  their  hearts  have  been 
hardened  that  they  could  not  believe. 

"  Even  now  amongst  you  there  are  many  who 
fear  that  you  are  attempting  the  impossible. 
But  the  only  impossibility  is  your  lack  of  faith, 
and  your  want  of  the  atmosphere  of  love,  which 
alone  gives  that  peace  and  repose  needed  for  the 
opening  of  the  inner  eye. 

"  You  seek  for  visions  which  the  saints  have 
enjoyed.  You  can  have  them  as  they  had,  by 
living  the  life  of  the  spirit,  and  cultivating  the 
calm  meditative  mood. 

"  You  begin  by  seeking  to  unite  the  hearts 
that  have  been  torn  asunder.  But  although  you 
do  well  to  begin  there,  it  is  but  as  the  threshold 
to  the  Temple  at  whose  portals  you  are  groping. 
For  the  dead  whom  you  seek  are  but  as  a  few 
scattered  units  in  the  midst  of  the  innumerable 
hosts  of  the  spiritual  beings.  Angels  and  arch- 
angels and  all  the  heavenly  host  with  whom  you 
may,  and  if  you  are  faithful,  you  will,  enter  into 
communion.  Yea,  verily,  there  are  no  things  hid 
which  may  not  be  revealed  unto  you.  If  so  be 
you  aspire  with  the  aspiration  of  a  God,  and 
approach  with  the  simple  faith  of  a  little  child." 

After  reading  the  messages,  Father  prayed  for 
guidance,  and  this  was  followed  by  a  few  minutes 
of  silent  prayer. 


296  MY   FATHER 

Many  were  present  through  whom  those  across 
the  Border  could  manifest — and  many  did  ;  and 
for  some  time  loving  converse  was  held  between 
the  two  worlds.  Julia  was  the  first  to  speak,  and 
addressing  Father,  she  said  : — 

"  My  cup  runneth  over,  my  heart  is  so  full  of 
joy  that  again  in  an  upper  room  disciples  meet 
in  His  name,  which  is  Love.  Christ  came  with 
that  message  of  old,  to  bind  up  the  broken- 
hearted, to  comfort  those  who  mourn,  and  it  is 
such  service  of  joy,  for  in  Him  we  live,  move, 
and  have  our  very  being.  It  is  such  a  thin  veil 
that  separates  us  from  each  other.  At  times  it 
seems 'almost  impossible  that  those  who  are  in 
the  body  do  not  know  that  their  loved  ones  have 
returned  from  over  the  Borderland,  and  when 
the  knowledge  came  to  me,  that  I  could  not 
make  my  bereaved  friends  hear  and  talk  to  me, 
a  big  desire  was  created  that  others  should  not 
pass  through  that  same  Gethsemane.  ..." 

Many  others  gave  loving  messages  of  advice 
and  encouragement.  The  afternoon  meeting  was 
followed  by  a  dinner  at  night  at  the  "  First  Avenue 
Hotel,"  followed  by  another  "  Sitting "  and  more 
communion. 

So  the  Bureau  was  formally  opened,  and  when 
on  the  25th  of  April  the  work  began,  all  realised 
the  responsibility  which  had  been  laid  upon  them— 
but  they  were  strong  in  the  knowledge  that  they 
would  be  guided  and  helped  by  the  many  unseen 
helpers  on  the  Other  Side, 


JULIA'S   BUREAU  297 

Once  more  my  Father  knew  without  doubt, 
though  often  overwhelmed  by  his  own  unfitness 
for  the  task,  that  the  "  Sign  "  had  been  given,  and 
it  was  for  him  to  do  his  utmost  to  carry  out  the 
Senior  Partner's  bidding,  and  not  to  heed  or  fear 
the  derision  and  scorn  that  were  sure  to  follow  the 
step  he  had  taken. 

Before  the  Bureau  was  established,  Julia  wrote 
the  following  message,  which  was  published  in  her 
Letters,  pointing  out  clearly  the  possibility  of  the 
abuses,  and  the  uses  which  there  would  be  in  the 
working  of  such  an  institution. 

"  I  am  now  going  to  give  you  what  we  think 
on  this  side  is  a  word  of  advice  which  is  much 
needed.  You  are  very  eager  to  make  a  Bridge, 
you  say,  between  the  two  Worlds.  And  we  are 
more  so.  But  when  you  say  this,  do  you  realise 
what  it  implies  ?  What  the  realisation  would 
effect  ?  I  am  more  and  more  convinced  that  the 
establishment  of  the  fact,  and  the  certainty  of 
communication  between  this  world  and  yours, 
may  be  described  without  exaggeration  as  the 
most  important  thing  in  the  whole  range  of  the 
possible  achievements  of  mortal  man.  There  is 
nothing  like  it  for  the  far-reaching  influence  which 
it  will  exercise  over  all  things.  For  it  will  modify 
thought,  and  thought  makes  the  world  in  which 
you  live.  No  one  can  understand  how  true  that 
is  when  he  is  still  immersed  in  matter. 

"  My  dearest  friend,  when  you  get  the  Bureau 
of  Communication  established,  you  will  be  over- 
whelmed with  applications  from  both  sides. 


298  MY    FATHER 

"  And  you  will  find  that  there  are  multitudes 
who  will  ask  for  messages,  but  will  receive  none. 
You  remember  that  I  told  you  at  the  very  begin- 
ning that  1  could  either  get  you  an  answer,  or  tell 
you  why  no  communication  could  be  established. 
Now  there  are  many  on  this  side  who  have  been 
trying  to  get  into  touch  with  those  on  your  side, 
and  they  have  failed.  You  have  many  on  your 
side  who  will  make  the  same  attempt,  and  who 
will  fail  also.  And  so  it  will  be.  And  so  it  ought 
to  be.  For  there  are  many  times  when  Death 
the  Divider  is  the  most  necessary  and  the  most 
useful  agency  that  can  be  provided  for  the  service 
of  man.  Nothing  but  evil  would  result  if  all 
the  dead,  as  you  call  them,  could  haunt  the  living. 
The  Other  World,  as  you  call  it,  would  be  too 
much  for  you. 

"  Then  had  we  better  not  let  it  alone  ? 

"  No ;  I  am  quite  sure  that  the  Bureau  could 
be  a  very  great  blessing.  But  it  could  also  be  a 
very  great  curse.  When  you  have  the  dead 
hand — no,  the  phrase  '  dead  hand '  is  not  right. 
But  it  would  be  wiser  to  say  that  there  are  multi- 
tudes of  spirits  whose  removal  from  direct  action 
upon  the  embodied  living  is  much  to  be  desired. 

"  There  are  multitudes  of  souls  to  whom 
Death  has  been  a  great  deliverance.  I  mean 
that  it  has  taken  away  persons  who  have  been 
harsh,  cruel  and  despotic.  Nay,  it  has  sometimes 
been  kinder  in  removing  those  who  have  been 
too  kind,  and  whose  care  has  dwarfed,  whose 
love  and  tenderness  have  weakened,  the  growing 
life.  These  influences  are  to  be  deplored  which 


JULIA'S    BUREAU  299 

prevent  the  full  development  of  the  soul.  The 
benefit  of  what  you  call  death  is  that  it  leaves 
room  for  the  remaining  ones  to  develop.  What 
you  have  to  do  is  to  grow  strong  and  independent. 
What  you  have  to  avoid  is  being  mere  shadows 
or  echoes,  or,  worse  still,  mere  puppets  of  another 
will.  Death  has  rescued  many  of  the  living  from 
what  would  have  ruined  them.  And  if  you  open 
your  Bureau,  they  will  try  to  avoid  being  saved. 
Those  who  have  learned  to  lean  will  lean  on  the 
disembodied  spirit,  whereas  they  ought  to  lean 
on  themselves.  Who  will  not  trust  his  own  soul 
has  lost  it.  And  who  will  not  rely  upon  the 
voice  of  God  in  his  own  soul  will  seek  for  it  in 
vain  in  the  voices  from  beyond  the  Border. 

"  But  there  are  many  spirits  but  lately  dis- 
embodied, whose  communications,  even  though 
framed  with  care  and  inspired  by  love,  would  be 
mischievous  and  not  helpful.  Why,  my  dear 
friend,  when  you  ask  me  for  guidance,  I  often 
feel  that  I  might  be  a  great  curse  to  you  if  I 
gave  it  you  as  you  wish  to  have  it.  What  I  can 
do — all  that  I  can  do  is  to  tell  you  how  things 
seem  to  me,  to  remind  you  that  while  I  often 
see  more  than  you,  you,  who  are  living  in  con- 
ditions that  do  not  prevail  here,  are  in  a  better 
position  to  judge  as  to  many  things  than  I  can 
be.  Occasionally  I  am  permitted  to  tell  you 
things  in  advance  for  purposes  of  test  and  to  give 
you  assurance.  But  1  should  be  nothing  but  a 
curse  to  you  if  I  were  to  attempt  to  tell  you  what 
to  do.  It  would  be  like  a  mother  always  carrying 
a  child.  It  would  never  walk.  Besides,  I  do 


300  MY   FATHER 

not  know.     You  must  not  think  me  omniscient 
because  I  have  not  got  my  body — my  old  body. 

"  Oh,  my  friend,  if  you  would  but  see  and 
understand  what  is  the  purpose  of  life,  you  would 
understand  how  fatal  it  would  be  to  allow  any 
and  every  cry  for  direction  and  guidance  and  help 
to  be  answered.  And  there  are  many  on  this 
side  who  will,  if  the  communication  be  opened, 
forget  this  and  give  advice  and  will  attempt  to 
direct  those  who  consult  them,  and  who  will  make 
sad  trouble.  For  it  is  not  for  us  to  steer  you. 
The  object  of  life  is  to  evoke,  to  develop  the  God 
within.  And  that  is  not  to  be  evoked  by  allowing 
others  to  direct  you.  But  you  will  find  the 
purpose  of  the  Father  will  not  be  allowed  to  be 
spoiled  by  the  folly  of  His  children,  whether  on 
this  side  or  on  that.  Those  spirits  that  attempt  to 
interfere  too  much  will  be  confounded.  They 
will  err,  and  be  found  out.  Their  authority  will 
be  destroyed.  And  so  in  the  end  things  will 
come  right  again. 

"  A  second  class  of  persons  to  whom  your 
Bureau  will  be  mischievous  is  composed  of  those 
who  are  merely  curious.  Mere  busybodies,  with 
an  inquisitive  itch,  will  come  to  ask,  from  no  deep 
longing  for  knowledge  of  the  Other  Side,  from 
no  real  desire  to  communicate  with  the  departed. 
They  will  throng  your  Bureau  as  they  would  go 
to  a  Dime  Museum  and  put  a  penny  in  the  slot 
to  get  some  novelty.  They  will  get  no  good. 
They  are  not  serious.  They  merely  come  from 
motives  of  curiosity  and  a  love  of  sensation. 
They  will  get  no  good.  They  may  get  harm. 


JULIA'S    BUREAU  301 

"  Thirdly,  there  are  those,  who  are  by  no  means 
so  few  in  number,  who  will  wish  to  perpetuate  a 
sinful  relationship.  They  will  not  admit  this. 
But  they  will  seek  it  earnestly,  desperately,  more 
often  than  you  imagine.  And  it  may  be  granted 
them.  The  alliance  that  had  been  severed  by  the 
grave  may  be  resumed.  Yes,  this  is  possible  and 
is  done.  There  is  a  possibility  of  the  resumption 
of  relations  which  you  believed  had  been  severed 
for  ever  by  death.  There  is  danger  here,  and  it 
is  a  danger  against  which  you  must  be  on  your 
guard.  Therefore,  I  say,  do  not  think  that 
the  Bureau  will  be  unmixed  good  !  Much  as  I 
desire  its  establishment,  I  see  that  for  many  it 
will  work  almost  unmixed  evil. 

"Men  will  find  what  they  bring.  And  the 
majority  of  men  will  seek  not  good,  but  what 
they  desire.  Now,  the  desire  of  men  is  by  no 
means  always  for  that  which  is  highest  and  best. 

"  Then,  do  you  think  we  had  better  drop  the 
idea  ? 

"My  dear  friend,  what  nonsense  you  talk! 
Do  you  propose  to  drop  navigation  because  you 
hear  of  storms  and  rocks  and  quicksands  ?  No  ! 
no  !  no  !  What  is  necessary  is  to  recognise  that 
the  Borderland  is  (at  least)  as  important  to  cross 
as  the  Atlantic,  but  that  it  is  not  any  more  safe. 
What  you  seem  to  forget  is  that  the  Bureau, 
with  all  its  risks,  will  do  what  is  the  most 
important  thing  of  all.  It  will  practically  abolish 
the  conception  of  death  which  now  prevails  in 
the  world.  You  have  become  mere  materialists. 
We  must  break  through  the  wall  of  matter 


302  MY   FATHER 

which  is  stifling  your  souls.  And  the  Bureau 
will  make  a  way  for  the  light  from  beyond  to 
shine  through.  That  is  enough  to  justify  the 
facing  of  any  risks  such  as  I  have  described. 

"Avoid  as  much  as  possible  the  three  classes 
of  whom  I  have  written,  and  confine  your 
attention  and  concentrate  your  efforts  upon  the 
verification  of  the  continuity  of  existence,  and 
the  possibility  of  securing  unmistakable  com- 
munications from  those  who  have  passed  the 
Borderland.  Telephones,  no  doubt,  may  easily 
become  a  nuisance.  And  this  Bureau  of  mine 
might  be  a  nuisance.  But  just  think  what  it 
implies.  If  you  could  secure  the  communication 
so  as  to  prove  that  life  continues,  that  love  lasts, 
that  the  other  world  is  in  contact  with  this — is 
that  not  enough?  If  it  were  only  that,  and 
nothing  more,  it  would  be  worth  while.  Only 
to  restore  the  consciousness  of  the  Invisible 
World  and  the  reality  of  Eternal  Love.  Only  !  " 

To  minimise  the  risks  and  diminish  the  dangers 
attaching  to  this  attempt  to  bridge  the  grave,  Julia 
undertook  the  personal  direction  of  the  Bureau, 
and  herself  defined  the  rules  and  conditions  which 
had  to  be  observed  by  all  those  who  wished  to 
avail  themselves  of  its  advantages. 

Every  applicant  to  the  Bureau  had  to  sign  the 
following  form  :— 

APPLICATION  FORM. 

A.  No 

I,  ,  having  done  my  best  to 

study  the  subject  of  communications  with  the  other  world,  hereby 
make  application  for  the  use  of  the  Bureau  in  order  to  attempt 


JULIA'S   BUREAU  303 

to  enter  into  communication  with   ,  my , 

late  of ,  who  passed  into  the  Spirit  World 

on  This  application  is  solely  prompted 

by  motives  of  affection,  in  the  belief  that,  if  it  be  permitted,  the 
deceased  would  desire  such  an  opening-up  of  communication  as 
earnestly  as  does  the  applicant.  I  have  read  the  pamphlet 
entitled  "Julia's  Bureau  and  Borderland  Library,"  and  also  the 
first  series  of  "  Letters  from  Julia."  With  a  full  understanding 
of  conditions,  limitations,  and  dangers  therein  defined,  I  make 
this  application,  and  I  am  willing  to  submit  in  all  things  to  the 
decision  of  the  Director  of  the  Bureau  conveyed  to  me  by  one  or 
other  of  her  amanuenses. 

When  this  application  was  signed  and  sent  in  to 
the  Bureau,  it  was  submitted  to  the  Director,  who 
within  two  or  three  days,  intimated  whether  in  her 
judgment  the  case  was  one  which  was  fit  and 
proper  to  be  taken  in  hand.  If  the  Director  re- 
jected the  application  for  any  cause,  or  without 
specifying  any  cause,  the  applicant  had  to  acquiesce 
in  her  decision 

If  at  any  subsequent  stage  it  should  have 
appeared  that  earthbound  spirits  or  undesirable 
intelligences  were  endeavouring  to  obtrude  them- 
selves upon  the  applicant,  the  Director  would  at 
once  arrest,  in  that  case,  the  further  prosecution  of 
the  attempt  to  establish  communications  with  the 
Other  Side.  Submission,  unquestioning  and  un- 
grudging submission,  to  the  judgment  of  the 
Director  was  a  sine  qua  non. 

Application  Form  A.  was  submitted  (1)  to  a 
psychometrist,  (2)  to  Julia's  Secretary  No.  1,  and 
(3)  to  Julia's  Secretary  No.  2,  all  of  whom  acting 
independently,  filled  in  separate  forms  which  were 
then  compared.  If  their  contents  agreed,  which  was 
almost  always  the  case,  the  application  was  either 


304  MY   FATHER 

rejected  or  accepted.  If,  as  very  seldom  happened, 
the  automatists  and  the  psychometrist  differed  as 
to  how  an  application  should  be  treated,  appeal  was 
made  to  Julia  in  Council,  when  her  decision, 
received  by  a  clairvoyant,  was  final. 

When  the  decision  of  Julia  was  favourable,  which 
it  was  in  the  majority  of  cases — although  some  were 
postponed — the  applicant  was  informed  of  the  fact. 

He  was  then  asked  to  fill  in  and  sign  the  follow- 
ing Form  H,  which  he  then  enclosed  in  a  sealed 
envelope,  and  retained  in  his  possession  until  the 
experiment  was  complete. 

H.  No 

To  be  enclosed  in  sealed  envelope  and  retained  by  the  applicant 
until  he  returns  it  with  the  annotated  reports  to  the  Bureau. 
What  would  be  Satisfactory  Tests  ? 

From 

Address Register  No 

In  submitting  to  the  Bureau  the  case  of  

I  would  regard  it  as  satisfactory  evidence  that  I  had  been  put  in 
communication  with  my  beloved  one  if  the  sensitives  could  give 
me  any  of  the  following  particulars  : — 

1.  Personal  particulars. 

(a)  Name  in  full ;  (b)  date  of  birth ;  (c)  date  of  death ; 
and  (d)  place  of  death. 

2.  Personal  appearance  of  deceased.     Specifying  : — 

(a)  Approximate  height ;  (b)  apparent  age ;  (c)  general 
aspect ;  (d)  colour  of  hair  and  eyes  ;  (e)  expression 
of  features ;  (/)  any  peculiarity. 

3.  Description  of  death.     Specifying  :• — 

(a)  Apparent  cause  of;  (b)  any  scene  at  death;  (c)  any 
incidents  or  messages. 

4.  Reference  to  any  of  the  following  incidents  in  past  life 

known  to  deceased  and  myself. 

5.  Giving  (a)  any  pet  name  of  deceased's  or  of -my  own,  as  for 

instance ;  (b)  or  the  names  of  any 


JULIA'S    BUREAU  305 

relatives  or  friends,  e.g.,  ; 

or  (c)  the  names  of  any  place,  house,  &c.,  known  to  us 
both,  e.g.,  

6.  Giving  any  message  to  me  about  affairs  not  known  to  the 

sensitive. 

7.  The  use  of  any  characteristic  words,  phrases,  slang,  nick- 

names, as  for  instance  

If  all  or  any  of  the  above  are  obtained  from  the  sensitives,  I 
will  be  satisfied  that,  if  telepathy  be  excluded,  I  have  been  put 
in  communication  with  my  dead. 

If  the  sensitives  were  to  give  me  a  message  containing  in- 
formation known  to  the  deceased,  but  which  was  not  in  my 
possession,  and  which  I  subsequently  verified  as  true,  I  should 
regard  it  as  suggesting  that  in  the  other  cases  telepathy  was  not 
the  explanation. 

To  further  ascertain  whether  the  telepathic  hypothesis  is  to  be 
relied  upon,  I  undertake,  as  each  sensitive  is  drawing  to  the  close 
of  the  sitting,  to  try  to  impress  as  strongly  as  I  can  upon  their 

mind  the  name  of  who  has  no  connection 

whatever  with  my  beloved  dead. 

I  sign  this  and  will  seal  it  before  going  to  the  sensitives,  and 
undertake  to  forward  the  envelope  with  seal  unbroken  to  the 
Bureau  after  annotating  the  reports  of  the  sittings. 

On  receipt  of  Form  D,  signed  by  the  applicant, 
the  experiment  began. 

FORM  D. 

I  hereby  inform  you  that  I  have  filled  in  Form  H,  and  have 

enclosed  it  in  a  sealed  envelope,  affixing  the  seal  on   , 

19....  When  I  have  received  and  annotated  the  reports  of  the 
three  sensitives,  I  will  forward  this  envelope  with  seal  unbroken 
to  the  Bureau,  together  with  the  annotated  reports. 

(Signed)     

The  documents  being  all  in  order,  the  action  of 
the  Bureau  began. 

Applicants  living  in  or  near  London  were  asked 
to  attend  personally  at  the  Bureau. 

x 


306  MY  FATHER 

Applicants  living  abroad,  or  at  a  distance,  were 
requested  to  send  in  some  article  that  had  been  in 
personal  contact  with  the  friend  or  relative  with 
whom  they  wished  to  come  into  communication 
— a  scrap  of  handwriting,  a  lock  of  hair,  an  old 
glove — anything  with  which  there  had  been  contact. 
It  was  requested  when  possible  to  send  three  such 
small  articles,  so  that  each  sensitive  could  deal  with 
one  not  handled  by  the  other. 

The  applicant  in  the  first  case  met  the  psychic 
who  was  stationed  at  the  office  of  the  Bureau,  with 
whom  the  first  sitting  took  place.  This  psychic, 
being  a  member  of  the  regular  staff,  was  necessarily 
acquainted  with  the  name  of  the  applicant,  and  that 
of  the  person  inquired  after,  and  the  date  of  the 
decease,  as  these  particulars  were  entered  in  the 
Form  A. 

The  applicant  was  then  passed  on  to  two  other 
sensitives  not  sitting  at  the  office,  who  were  not 
informed  either  as  to  the  name  of  the  applicant  or 
as  to  the  person  inquired  after. 

No  payment  whatever  was  allowed  to  be  made 
to  the  medium  or  the  stenographer  by  the  sitter, 
and  it  was  a  strict  rule  that  no  complaint  whatever 
was  to  be  made  if  the  medium  failed  altogether  in 
obtaining  any  communication.  No  medium  was 
employed  who  was  not  believed  to  be  thoroughly 
honest.  "  Every  sitter  ought  to  be  fully  aware  of  the 
fact  that  the  law  governing  communication  between 
the  two  worlds  is  very  complex  and  very  delicate, 
and  the  medium  is  the  last  person  who  should  be 
blamed  should  no  communication  be  obtained." 

At  each  sitting  the  applicant  was  accompanied 


JULIA'S   BUREAU  307 

by  a  stenographer,  who  took  down  everything  said 
at  the  three  sittings.  There  was  usually  no 
substantial  difference  between  the  communications 
received  by  Sensitive  No.  1  who  knew  the  names 
in  Form  A.,  and  those  received  by  Sensitives  No.  2 
and  No.  3  who  knew  absolutely  nothing  about  the 
applicant. 

In  cases  where  the  applicant  could  not  attend  in 
person,  the  article  which  had  been  in  touch  with 
the  friend  inquired  after  was  taken  to  Sensitives  1, 
2,  and  3  in  succession  by  a  stenographer,  who  care- 
fully recorded  results. 

Reports  of  each  of  the  three  sittings  were  then 
sent  to  the  applicant  with  a  request  that  the 
applicant  would  "  (1)  go  through  the  three  Reports 
carefully,  line  by  line,  stating  exactly  what  is 
correct  and  what  is  not ;  (2)  append  to  the  report 
in  each  case  his  own  impression  as  to  how  far  the 
communications  made  by  the  medium  could  be 
explained  by  telepathy  from  the  conscious  mind 
or  from  the  unconscious  mind,  or  whether  he 
suspects  that  the  accurate  information  could  have 
been  conveyed  to  the  mind  of  the  medium  by  any 
other  means  ;  and  (3)  give  his  final  impression  as  to 
whether  or  not  he  thinks  he  has  been  brought  into 
communication  with  his  loved  one." 

These  Reports,  the  re  vised  and  the  final  impression, 
together  with  sealed  envelope  containing  Form  H, 
were  then  sent  in  to  the  Bureau,  where  the  envelope 
would  be  opened  and  its  contents  compared  with 
the  results  obtained  from  the  three  mediums. 

These  annotated  reports  were  carefully  filed  in 
the  archives.  The  Bureau  reserved  to  itself  the 

x  2 


308  MY  FATHER 

right  to  publish  these  reports  either  in  full  or  in 
extract,  so  long  as  the  names  and  addresses  of  the 
persons  concerned  were  omitted,  unless  special 
permission  was  given  by  the  applicant  for  the 
publication  of  all  particulars. 

Unfortunately  it  was  here  that  some  of  the 
applicants  did  not  carry  out  their  part  of  the 
arrangement.  Although  professing  themselves  to 
be  absolutely  certain  that  beyond  a  doubt  they  had 
been  brought  into  communication  with  friends  and 
loved  ones  on  the  Other  Side,  many  did  not  con- 
sider it  necessary  to  go  through  the  three  Reports 
carefully  and  give  the  final  impression  as  requested. 
So,  although  a  certain  number  did  do  so,  the  archives 
do  not  contain  as  many  annotated  reports  as  they 
ought  to  do,  had  those  who  had  benefited  carried 
out  their  part  of  the  arrangement. 

All  applicants  to  the  Bureau  were  requested  to 
read  the  following  at  least  twice — once  on  first 
reading  the  instructions,  and  again  after  their 
application  had  been  approved  and  they  were 
ready  for  sittings. 

"No  cause  frustrates  the  purpose  of  the 
Bureau  so  much  as  an  unsympathetic,  querulous 
or  carping  attitude,  on  the  part  of  the  sitter, 
towards  the  sensitive  during  the  sitting.  If  the 
bereaved  are  riot  willing  to  treat  the  sensitive 
with  courtesy,  consideration  and  respect,  they  had 
much  better  make  no  application  to  Julia's  Bureau. 

"  Consider  for  a  moment  what  it  is  that  con- 
stitutes a  medium.  It  is  the  fact  that  he  or  she 
is  more  sensitive  than  ordinary  mortals.  They 
are  higher  in  the  scale  of  evolution  than  the 


JULIA'S    BUREAU  309 

rest  of  their  fellows.  They  have  developed  a 
sixth  sense.  Just  as  an  open  eye  is  liable  to 
suffer  agony  and  injury  from  a  speck  of  dust, 
while  an  eye  that  is  closed  never  feels  a  sand- 
storm that  falls  upon  its  lids,  so  that  rare 
creature,  a  fully-developed  psychic,  winces  under 
an  unsympathetic  word,  look,  or  even  thought. 
Some  sitters  will  never  get  good  results  because 
their  acrid,  censorious,  exacting  spirit  destroys 
the  conditions  which  render  it  possible  for  the 
medium  to  see,  to  hear,  or  to  be  controlled. 
You  might  as  well  expect  to  get  a  good  photo- 
graph with  a  long  exposure,  when  the  sitter  was 
fidgeting  and  talking,  as  to  get  good  results 
from  a  sitting  when  you  are  not  passive,  recep- 
tive and  sympathetic.  Mediums  are  not  merely 
allowed  by  the  rules  of  the  Bureau,  but  are 
under  the  positive  orders  of  Julia,  to  terminate 
any  sitting  at  any  moment  without  assigning 
any  reason  if  to  their  finer  perception  the  sitter 
gives  way  to  a  harsh,  supercilious,  carping, 
censorious  spirit.  This  is  not  meant  to  depre- 
ciate the  freest  possible  criticism  or  anaylsis  of 
the  results  obtained  after  they  are  secured,  but 
you  might  as  well  expect  an  astronomer  to  make 
a  difficult  observation  of  a  distant  star  when  you 
are  shaking  his  telescope,  as  to  expect  good 
results  unless  you  supply  the  medium  with  the 
necessary  conditions  of  quiet  restfulness,  sym- 
pathy and  passivity.  Answer  any  questions  asked 
simply  and  directly.  Do  not  volunteer  any  infor- 
mation, but  give  it  when  asked  for — the  fact  that 
it  was  asked  for  will  be  noted  by  the  stenographer. 
"  In  a  word,  treat  the  medium  as  if  you  and 


310  MY  FATHER 

he  were  gentlemen  or  ladies,  as  the  case  may  be, 
who  have  met  for  the  purpose  of  helping  each 
other  to  achieve  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  aims— 
the  bridging  of  the  River  of  Death. 

"When  the  Bureau  is  further  developed,  it 
is  Julia's  desire  that  a  small  chapel  in  the  office 
should  be  set  apart  in  which  every  applicant 
should  spend  ten  minutes  in  solitary  pre- 
meditation and  prayer  before  taking  a  sitting. 
This  practice  of  the  presence  of  the  departed 
may  be  pursued  with  advantage  without  the 
chapel,  by  spending  the  time  in  quiet  thought. 

"  Remember  that  in  most  cases  the  failure 
to  communicate  is  due  more  to  the  faults  of 
the  sitter  than  the  incapacity  of  the  medium. 

"  There  is  another  class  of  sitters  who  hinder 
the  success  they  desire,  not  so  much  by 
influencing  the  medium,  as  by  placing  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  the  return  of  their  loved  ones. 
Excessive  grief,  especially  when  accompanied 
by  feelings  of  resentment  or  despair,  seems  to 
build  up  between  the  bereaved  and  their  beloved 
an  impervious  curtain  of  cold  grey  mist, 
through  which  it  is  in  vain  to  try  to  open 
communications. " 

In  the  first  four  months  there  were  150  cases 
undertaken  by  the  Bureau,  and  there  was  only 
one  single  case  in  which  Julia's  decisions,  taken 
automatically,  were  not  in  entire  accord.  In  the 
solitary  exception  Julia's  explanation  was  clear 
and  satisfactory.  One  of  the  Secretaries  had  tried 
to  take  her  decision  when  pressed  for  time,  in 
circumstances  not  conducive  to  passivity  and 


JULIA'S   BUREAU  311 

detachment.  When  the  decision  was  asked  for  a 
second  time  under  the  conditions  laid  down  by 
Julia  the  apparent  difference  disappeared. 

After   the   Bureau   had  been   established   three 
months  Father  wrote  : — 

"  The  result  of  three  months'  experience  has 
been  to  confirm  my  conviction  that  it  is 
perfectly  possible  to  establish  communications 
with  those  who  sincerely  love,  even  although 
they  are  divided  by  the  grave,  excepting  under 
certain  circumstances,  in  which  it  was  inadvisable 
that  such  communication  should  be  effected." 

In  all,  over  600  persons  received  help  and  conso- 
lation during  the  three  years  of  the  Bureau's  activity, 
and  were  confident  that  they  had  been  brought  into 
communication  with  their  loved  ones  who  had 
passed  on  before.  Many  cases  of  despair  and  sorrow 
are  recorded  as  having,  by  means  of  the  Bureau, 
found  comfort  and  joy,  in  the  realisation  that  those 
they  mourned  were  in  very  deed  not  dead  but  living, 
and  longing  to  communicate  with  those  they  had 
left  behind.  The  telepathic  test  invariably  failed  ; 
not  one  of  the  cases  succeeded  in  impressing  the 
test  word  on  the  sensitive. 

The  cost  of  maintaining  the  Bureau  fell  entirely 
upon  my  Father,  and  although  he  dedicated  the 
£1,000  earned  by  his  "  Special  Correspondence"  to 
the  work,  the  cost  was  considerably  over  £1,000  for 
the  first  year.  As  every  case  entailed  an  out-of 
pocket  expenditure  of  £2  2s.  Qd.  over  and  above  the 
outlay  on  offices,  it  was  nearer  £2,000. 

The   subscriptions   to   the   Borderland   Library, 


312  MY  FATHER 

which  some  appear  to  have  confused  with  payment 
for  the  use  of  the  Bureau,  were  more  than  absorbed 
by  rent  of  room,  payment  of  attendant,  and  purchase 
of  books,  periodicals,  and  stationery. 

It  might  seem,  therefore,  that  an  obvious  method 
of  meeting  the  expenditure  would  have  been  the 
simple  expedient  of  asking  each  applicant  to  pay 
the  two  guineas  which  had  to  be  paid  out  of  pocket 
by  the  Bureau  if  his  application  was  entertained. 

But  Julia  absolutely  forbade  this.  She  said  that 
the  need  for  consolation  afforded  by  the  Bureau  was 
not  confined  to  those  who  could  afford  to  pay  for  it, 
and  that  every  application  must  be  dealt  with  on 
its  merits  without  any  reference  to  the  question 
whether  or  not  the  applicant  could  afford  to  pay. 

How,  then,  was  such  a  Bureau  to  be  financed  ? 
A  minimum  of  three  cases  a  day  would  involve 
an  outlay  of  nearly  £2,000  a  year,  and  there  were 
sometimes  more  than  three  cases  a  day.  To  this 
Julia's  answer  was  that  we  must  walk  by  faith, 
nothing  doubting ;  that  "  we  must  not  charge 
applicants  any  fee  for  the  services  of  the  Bureau, 
but  that  after  their  application  had  been  dealt  with 
those  who  had  benefited  by  the  Bureau  were 
allowed,  if  they  so  please,  of  their  own  free  will,  to 
contribute  either  two  guineas  to  defray  the  cost  of 
another  case  or  any  multiple  of  two  guineas  as  a 
thank-offering  to  her  Bureau." 

Four  months  after  the  Bureau  started  Father 
wrote : — 

"  I  confess  that  this  reliance  for  the  financing 
of  the  Bureau  upon  gratitude  for  services  reii- 


JULIA'S   BUREAU  313 

dered  seems  to  most  persons  on  the  earth  plane 
somewhat  unbusinesslike.  So  far  the  results 
have  hardly  justified  the  splendid  confidence  of 
Julia.  But  I  am  going  on  relying  upon  her 
assurance  that  the  necessary  funds  will  not  fail 
to  be  provided  when  they  are  needed." 

However,  extra  funds  were  not  forthcoming,  and 
after  the  first  year  Mowbray  House  had  to  be 
given  up,  and  the  whole  of  the  work  was  carried 
on  from  Cambridge  House. 

Later  on  it  was  found  impossible  to  give  more 
than  one  sitting  to  each  applicant,  though,  if  this 
one  sitting  failed  of  results,  a  second  was  arranged 
with  another  medium. 

An  attempt  was  made  to  expose  Julia's  Bureau, 
shortly  after  its  foundation,  by  a  well-known 
weekly.  It  was  a  dismal  failure.  The  represen- 
tatives of  the  paper — although  they  came  in  the 
guise  of  authentic  applicants  wishing  to  be  put  into 
communion  with  their  "  loved  ones  "  —never  got 
beyond  the  threshold  of  the  Bureau,  so  vigilant 
were  the  workers  on  both  sides.  They  were  refused 
a  sitting,  but  given  at  their  request  a  list  of 
mediums — to  two  of  whom  they  went,  the  Bureau 
having  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  visits. 
They  based  the  alleged  "  Exposure  "  on  the  results 
obtained  with  these  mediums — and  even  then  had 
to  admit  that  some  of  the  evidence  they  had 
received  was  difficult  to  explain,  and  considering 
the  "  conditions "  these  gentlemen  must  have 
gathered  round  them,  it  was  to  be  wondered  at  that 
they  received  anything  at  all. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

THE   MORNING    CIRCLE 

"  O  God  who  art  the  Father  of  all  the  spirits  who  inhabit  Thy 
Universe  of  Love,  we  come  to  Thee  this  morning  as  obedient 
children,  to  be  taught  our  duty  and  receive  strength  faithborn  to 
do  it.  Almighty,  Whose  name  and  nature  is  Love,  enable  us  each 
to  be  living  temples  of  Love — Love  to  Thee,  Love  to  each  other, 
and  Love  to  all  the  spirits  that  live  in  Thy  whole  Universe. 
Allow  us  the  liberty  of  children  with  a  Father  and  enable  us  to 
have  wisdom  and  power  to  make  manifest  to  the  children  of  men 
the  reality  and  the  glory  of  the  love  which  has  triumphed  over 
Death,  and  enabled  us  to  bridge  the  grave  for  all  who  love. 
These  things  we  ask  in  the  name  and  for  the  sake  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  our  risen  Saviour.  Amen." 

Prayer  written  by  Julia  for  use  at  the  morning  circle. 

ONE  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  the 
Bureau  was  undoubtedly  the  Morning  Circle,  when 
the  staff  met  for  communion  with  the  helpers  across 
the  Border,  and  to  ask  for  guidance  and  help  during 
the  day.  A  chair  was  always  placed  for  Julia  at  the 
head  of  the  table.  Each  member  in  turn  had  to 
take  the  service — choose  the  reading  and  prayer, 
Julia  generally  selecting  the  hymn.  It  was  in  reply 
to  a  query  as  to  the  opening  prayer,  that  Julia 


814 


THE   MORNING   CIRCLE  315 

wrote  the  prayer  quoted  above,  through  Father's 
hand  with  the  following  preface  : — 

"  I  have  no  more  authority  to  prescribe  your 
prayers  than  anyone  else.  I  only  supply  a 
framework  that  may  be  used  either  with,  or 
alternately  with,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  by  anyone 
who  feels  a  difficulty  in  addressing  our  Father  in 
his  or  her  own  terms.  Alter  or  vary  as  you 
please.  I  only  put  down  the  heads  of  what  we 
on  this  side  regard  as  objects  to  be  sought  for. 

"  JULIA  A.  AMES." 

The  Morning  Circle  gradually  grew  to  be  a  great 
meeting-ground  for  many  who  had  thrown  off  the 
physical  body  and  passed  onward,  to  come  and 
communicate  with  those  still  on  the  earth  plane. 
Many  were  the  religious  discussions  with,  and  com- 
munications from,  those  who  had  filled  high  places 
in  the  Churches  of  the  world,  as  well  as  exciting 
political  discussions  with  those  who  had  held 
prominent  office  in  Parliament  and  State.  People 
of  all  nationalities — stretching  far  back  into  the 
ages — came  to  that  upper  chamber,  and  all  testi- 
fied to  the  continuance  of  life  and  work  after  passing 
through  the  veil,  and  gave  impressions — coming  back 
to  physical  conditions,  it  appears  to  be  impossible  to 
do  more — of  what  that  life  and  work  really  is. 
The  accounts  of  these  communications  and  discus- 
sions, suggest  such  a  sense  of  reality  and  sincerity 
that  it  is  hard  to  put  the  communicators  aside  as 
impersonators,  gulling  the  credibility  of  those  to 
whom  they  came.  Still,  when  one  pauses  to  think 


316  MY   FATHER 

what  it  is  one  is  really  reading,  it  seems  incredible, 
and  we  can  but  say — "  Time  will  prove." 

Still,  again,  if  it  be  true  that  communication  is 
possible  and  an  established  fact,  surely  it  is  those 
who  possessed  the  greatest  minds,  and  who  were 
ever  in  the  van  here,  who  would  be  the  first,  if  they 
realised  communication  to  be  possible,  to  use  such 
a  means  as  that  afforded  in  the  quiet  room  at 
Julia's  Bureau. 

When  Mowbray  House  was  given  up  it  was 
impossible  to  hold  the  Morning  Circle  as  before, 
and  it  gave  place  to  the  Wednesday  Circle- 
Julia's  Circle  it  was  always  called — held  every 
Wednesday  evening  at  Cambridge  House,  and 
conducted  in  exactly  the  same  manner  as  the 
Morning  Circle. 

This  circle  continued  to  meet  till  my  Father's 
death,  and  was  kept  together,  and  met  inter- 
mittently, during  the  summer  following — places 
always  being  reserved  for  Julia  and  the  "  Chief," 
who  had  joined  her  now  in  the  work  beyond  the 
veil. 

Some  of  the  messages  received  at  the  Morning 
Circle  seemed  to  Father  so  convincing  that  he 
was  tempted  to  publish  them,  giving  the  sources 
from  whence  they  came,  and  the  name  of  the  spirit 
supposed  to  be  communicating.  It  was  like  setting 
a  match  to  gunpowder — scorn  and  laughter  and 
derision  met  him  at  every  turn — the  papers  de- 
clared that  there  was  no  proof  in  the  alleged 
messages — they  were  not  in  the  style  of  the  person 
supposed  to  be  communicating,  or  if  they  were  in 


THE   MORNING   CIRCLE  317 

the  style,  then  the  medium  through  which  the 
message  had  been  communicated  had  been  priming 
himself,  or  herself,  beforehand,  etc.,  etc. ;  anything 
rather  than  allow  that  there  might  be  even  an 
infinitesimal  amount  of  truth  in  the  possibility  of 
communion  with  the  dead. 

"  Whatever  can  be  known  of  earth  we  know," 
Sneered  Europe's  wise  men  in  their  snail-shells  curled. 
"  No  !  "  said  one  man  in  Genoa,  and  that  "  No" 
Out  of  the  dark  created  this  new  world. — LOWELL. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

THE     SULTAN.       PROPOSED     ARBITRATION     CAMPAIGN 

"  I  am  unspeakably  grateful  to  God  for  having  employed  me  in 
this  work." — W.  T.  STEAD.  (Extract  from  a  private  letter.) 

IT  was  Father's  agitation  against  Turkey  during 
the  Bulgarian  Atrocities,  which  made  him,  as  he 
expressed  it,  in  1876.  In  1911,  as  the  end  drew 
near,  it  was  again  Turkey — but  it  was  for  Turkey, 
not  against  her,  he  agitated  in  what  proved  to  be 
his  last  campaign. 

Three  years  after  the  Young  Turks  came  into 
power ;  when  they  had  falsified  almost  every  hope 
which  the  promulgation  of  their  Constitution  had 
awakened,  there  came  the  prospect  of  the  Confer- 
ence of  Salonica.  My  Father  realising  the  oppor- 
tunity which  the  Conference  would  give  the  Young 
Turks  to  justify  those  hopes,  knew,  as  he  had  known 
many  times  before,  when  special  work  lay  ahead, 
that  it  was  his  duty  to  go  to  the  Near  East.  His 
first  project  was  to  visit  the  Balkans,  so  as  to  study 
the  problem  from  all  points  of  view,  but  finding  it 
was  impossible  for  him  to  be  away  for  long,  he 
reluctantly  limited  his  visit  to  Turkey,  and  in  July, 
1911,  he  left  England  for  Constantinople. 

During  his   visit   he   met   and   consulted    with 

818 


I 


IN  CONSTANTINOPLE,   11)11 


THE   SULTAN  319 

Turks,  Armenians,  Bulgarians,  and  Greeks,  seek- 
ing to  gather  information  that  he  might  know  how 
matters  stood. 

Everywhere  he  preached  the  gospel  of  "  Union." 
He  wrote : — 

"  If  only  people  would  help  each  other  to 
achieve  the  objects  on  which  they  are  agreed, 
instead  of  squabbling  over  the  fractional  points 
of  difference,  the  millennium  would  be  near  at 
hand.  The  principles  of  the  Civic  Church,  the 
union  of  all  who  love  in  the  service  of  all  who 
suffer,  the  co-operation  of  all  for  the  realisation 
of  common  ideals — these  I  have  been  preaching 
here  in  these  last  few  days,  in  quarters  where  I 
was  certainly  not  preaching  to  the  converted. 
The  Christians  of  Turkey  almost  equal  the  Turks 
in  number — there  are  eight  millions  of  each.  In 
education  they  are  vastly  superior.  But  the 
Turks  are  a  unit,  whereas  the  Christians  are 
split  into  four  sections — Greek,  Bulgarian, 
Armenian,  and  Catholic.  The  Turks,  moreover, 
have  behind  them  another  eight  millions  of  Arabs, 
Albanians,  and  Koordish  Moslems.  The 
Christians,  therefore,  are  only  one-third  of  the 
population.  But  instead  of  having  one-third  of 
the  members  of  Parliament  they  have  hardly  one- 
seventh.  Nor  is  that  all.  Owing  to  their 
intestine  strife  the  Turks  have  always  been  able 
to  play  off  one  section  against  the  other,  favour- 
ing one  in  order  to  be  more  free  to  oppress  the 
other.  The  present  Turkish  Government  has — 
fortunately  or  unfortunately,  according  to  your 
standpoint — adopted  so  comprehensive  and 
uniform  a  policy  of  attack  on  the  privileges  of  all 


320  MY   FATHER 

the  Christians  as  to  drive  them,  almost  for  the 
first  time  in  recent  years,  into  an  attempt  at  what 
may  be  described  as  co-operative  self-defence.  A 
joint  committee,  representing  Greeks,  Bulgarians, 
Armenians,  and  Catholics,  has  been  appointed  by 
the  Greek  Patriarch,  the  Exarch  of  the  Bul- 
garians, and  the  A  cting  Patriarch  of  the  Armenians, 
for  the  purpose  of  stating  their  grievances,  and 
for  promoting  the  interests  of  the  Christians  of 
the  East.  I  had  the  pleasure  of  assisting  at  a 
meeting  of  this  Committee  when  a  general  plan 
of  electoral  operations  was  agreed  upon.  If  only 
Christendom,  as  represented  by  the  Concert,  and 
by  the  Churches,  would  pull  together,  the  Turks 
would  find  it  much  more  easy  to  do  right  than 
they  do  to-day." 

He  had  an  interview  with  the  Sultan  and  talked 
with  him  for  a  full  half-hour.  He  felt  he  had  a 
message  to  deliver,  and  he  spoke  to  him,  as  he 
wrote  in  a  letter  at  the  time,  "as  if  I  were  a 
prophet  or  disciple.  I  had  an  open  door,  thank 
God !  and  I  made  use  of  it  to  the  uttermost  of 
the  power  that  was  given  me." 

The  following  is  taken  from  his  own  account  of 
the  interview  which  he  wrote  for  the  Review  at  the 
time  :— 

The  Sultan  being  unable  to  speak  any  language 
but  Turkish,  the  Court  Chamberlain,  Sir  Loufti, 
Bay  offered  to  act  as  interpreter.  Father  gladly  ac- 
cepted his  offer. 

"  An  officer  in  khaki  uniform  conducted  me 
to  the  door  of  the  Sultan,  to  whom  I  was  at 


THE    SULTAN  321 

once  presented  by  Sir  Loufti.  His  Majesty 
advanced  a  step  or  two  to  meet  me,  shook 
hands,  and  motioned  me  to  a  chair.  As  he 
resumed  his  own,  I  scrutinised  him  with  interest 
and  curiosity.  The  Sultan  is  a  man  somewhat 
below  the  middle  height,  somewhat  past  the 
prime  of  life,  slightly  stout  in  body,  and  some- 
what slow  in  his  movements  and  in  his  speech. 
He  was  older  than  any  Sovereign  I  had  previously 
met,  and  with  a  less  mobile  countenance.  He 
wore  the  inevitable  red  fez — an  institution  with 
which  not  even  the  Parliament  dares  to  inter- 
meddle— and  beneath  his  grey  eyebrows  his  eyes 
blinked  with  a  somewhat  vacuous  expression. 
He  wore  a  moustache,  and  his  beard  was 
trimmed  short.  He  did  not  strike  me  as  being 
a  nervous  man,  neither  did  he  give  me  the 
impression  either  of  an  alert  mind  or  of  resolute 
will.  A  somewhat  dull,  colourless  face,  with  a 
curious  suggestion  in  it  of  the  old  Land  Leaguer, 
Matt  Harris  of  Ballinasloe.  It  seemed  to  me 
that  he  had  the  somewhat  shy  reserve  of  a 
prisoner  not  yet  fully  accustomed  to  liberty ;  a 
man,  I  should  say,  naturally  of  a  kindly  dis- 
position, but  of  somewhat  confused  mind,  who 
has  not  yet  got  his  bearings,  or  felt  his  footing 
firm  enough  to  show  his  own  leanings.  But  I 
did  not  feel  quite  sure  that  there  was  not  in  him 
something  more  than  appears  on  the  surface,  and 
that  if  his  life  be  spared  his  Ministers  may  not 
find  that  he  has  a  will  of  his  own.  There  is  a 
good  deal  of  dogged  obstinacy  behind  that 
apparent  timidity.  It  is  not  the  timidity  of 

Y 


322  MY   FATHER 

temperament.  It  is  only  the  timidity  of  a  lands- 
man who  has  not  got  his  sea  legs. 

"  As  I  looked  at  him  I  could  not  help  feeling 
a  certain  sense  of  responsibility  and  even  of  awe. 
For  whatever  might  be  the  value  or  the  value- 
lessness  of  the  human  integer,  I  could  not  forget 
that  the  man  before  me  represented  one  of  the 
few  factors  that  count  in  the  ordering  of  the 
future  of  the  Near  East.  After  deducting  90 
per  cent,  from  the  nonsense  that  is  talked  about 
the  Caliphate,  there  still  remains  sufficient 
residuum  to  make  him  far  more  than  an  ordinary 
Sovereign.  Before  I  left  England  I  felt  that  the 
Constitutional  Party  had  made  a  great  mistake 
in  belittling  the  importance  of  the  Sultan.  In 
his  name  alone  can  they  rule,  and  it  is  the  worst 
of  bad  policies  to  discredit  the  position  of  the 
Sovereign.  It  is  so  in  Great  Britain.  It  is 
doubly  so  in  the  East,  where  the  personality  of 
the  Padishah  counts  for  much  more  than  in  the 
West. 

"  It  was  clear  to  me  from  the  outset  that 
the  Sultan  had  nothing  particular  to  say  to  me. 
He  had  received  me  as  a  matter  of  courtesy 
at  the  request  of  the  Grand  Vizier,  and  if  he 
had  any  thought  at  all  about  the  audience,  it 
was  probably  one  of  mild  curiosity  as  to  what 
kind  of  creature  I  might  me,  and  why  in  the 
world  I  should  come  to  see  him.  But  this, 
although  it  did  not  promise  well  for  an  interview 
such  as  is  common  when  a  Sovereign  or  his 
Ministers  seek  to  obtain  expression  of  their 
views  through  the  columns  of  a  newspaper,  left 


THE   SULTAN  328 

me  all  the  freer  field  in  which  to  deliver  my 
message.  For  I  have  never  sought  an  audience 
with  any  ruler  of  mankind  from  any  motive  of 
idle  curiosity  or  of  professional  ambition.  I 
have  never  undertaken  to  spare  time  which  I 
did  not  intend  to  use  to  the  best  of  my  ability 
in  saying  what  I  thought  it  would  be  useful 
for  them  to  hear. 

"  In  the  present  case  it  seemed  to  me  before  I 
left  London  that  if  I  got  a  chance,  I  ought  to 
use  it  to  impress  upon  the  Sultan  two  ideas- 
first,  the  splendour  and  glory  of  the  position  of 
a  Constitutional  monarch  if  he  relies  upon 
influence  rather  than  on  authority ;  and, 
secondly,  the  absolute  impossibility  of  keeping 
an  Empire  together  excepting  by  a  system  of 
decentralisation,  of  which  Great  Britain  affords 
the  most  advanced  type.  The  universal 
enthusiasm  with  which  the  Coronation  had  been 
celebrated  in  my  own  country,  and  the 
remarkable  evolution  of  decentralised  Im- 
perialism recorded  at  the  recent  Imperial 
Conference,  seemed  to  afford  me  apt  texts  on 
which  to  discourse  during  my  sojourn  in 
Turkey. 

"  It  might  seem  a  little  mad  to  dream  of 
delivering  such  a  message  to  such  a  man,  but  it 
was  none  the  worse  on  that  account.  The 
Turks  do  not  despise  madmen,  but  say  that  they 
are  men  to  whom  Allah  has  spoken.  Anyhow, 
I  had  no  doubt  whatever  as  to  my  duty,  if  1 
got  a  chance,  or  how  I  should  use  it. 

"  '  Son  of  man,'  so  came  the  word  of  the  Lord 

Y  2 


324  MY   FATHER 

to  the  Hebrew  seer,  '  I  have  made  thee  a  watch- 
man unto  the  house  of  Israel,  therefore  hear  the 
word  of  My  mouth  and  give  them  warning  from 
Me' — a  command  that  was  coupled  with  the 
emphatic  declaration  that  if  the  message  were  not 
delivered,  'their  blood  will  I  require  at  thine 
hand.'  If  the  warning  were  unheeded  the  doom 
might  fall,  but  '  thou  hast  delivered  thy  soul.' 

"  It  may  sound  presumptuous  to  those  not 
brought  up  as  I  was,  on  the  words  of  the  Old 
Book,  to  appropriate  to  myself  the  mandate  given 
two  thousand  years  ago  to  the  Prophet  of  Israel. 
But  after  all,  truth  is  truth,  and  if  you  are  dead 
certain  that  you  are  right,  and  see  dangers  to 
which  your  fellow-man  is  blind,  it  is  surely  your 
duty,  under  penalty  of  being  responsible  for  your 
silence,  to  warn  him  of  his  peril. 

"  Anyhow,  I  felt  if  I  were  allowed  a  chance  I 
should  regard  it  as  a  '  Thus  saith  the  Lord,'  and 
that  I  would  spare  no  effort  to  deliver  my 
message  as  faithfully  as  I  could.  Whether  it  was 
heeded  or  whether  it  was  disregarded  did  not  lie 
in  my  hands.  I  would  at  least  deliver  my  own 
soul. 

"  My  interview  with  the  Sultan  was  much  more 
the  delivery  of  a  message  to  His  Majesty  than  any 
catechising  of  the  Sovereign  for  information  or 
as  to  opinion. 

"  The  conversation  began  with  a  few  pleasant 
words  of  compliment  from  the  Sultan,  in  which 
it  was  not  difficult  to  detect  the  skilful  hand  of 
Sir  Loufti,  who  had  long  been  a  reader  of  the 
Review  of  Reviews. 


THE  SULTAN  325 

"  I  replied  by  expressing  my  sense  of  the  high 
honour  conferred  upon  me  by  being  admitted  to 
the  presence  of  His  Majesty.  He  bowed  slightly. 
I  went  on,  '  May  I  take  the  liberty  of  expressing 
to  your  Majesty  my  profound  sympathy  with  the 
unfortunate  victims  of  the  terrible  conflagration 
which  has  devastated  Stamboul  ? ' 

"  '  I  thank  you,'  he  replied. 

"  *  I  have  telegraphed  to  America  an  account 
of  the  sufferings  of  thousands  who  have  been 
rendered  homeless,  and  have  urged  the  American 
people  to  raise  subscriptions  for  the  poor 
sufferers.' 

"  The  Sultan's  eyes  gleamed  for  a  little.  Then 
he  spoke  slowly, '  I  thank  you  for  your  expression 
of  sympathy.  Such  sentiments  not  only  do  you 
honour,  but  they  show  that  despite  all  differences, 
humanity  is  one.' 

"  He  paused.  I  asked  Sir  Loufti,  *  May  I 
speak  freely  ?  ' 

"'Certainly,'  said  the  Chamberlain.  'His 
Majesty  desires  it.' 

"  Here,  then,  was  the  open  door  and  the 
wished-for  opportunity.  '  I  wish  to  congratu- 
late His  Majesty  upon  being  the  first  of  the 
line  of  Constitutional  sovereigns  in  Turkey  ;  to 
be  followed,  I  hope,  by  a  long  line  of  monarchs 
who  will  excel  in  glory  the  greatest  of  their 
predecessors.' 

"  Again  a  pause.  The  Sultan  brought  his 
fingers  together  across  his  breast,  and  answered, 
4 1  thank  you  for  your  good  wishes.  I  have 
always  desired  the  establishment  of  the  Con- 


326  MY   FATHER 

stitution  in  Turkey,  and  now  that  it  is  established 
I  shall  maintain  the  Constitution.' 

"  It  was  evident  that  those  who  told  me  the 
Sultan  would  not  talk  were  misinformed.  He 
was  not  eager  to  speak.  He  always  paused  a 
little  before  he  framed  his  sentences.  But  he 
answered  in  a  way  that  showed  he  was  listen- 
ing attentively,  and  was  sometimes  reflecting 
shrewdly. 

"From  this  point  the  conversation  went  on 
freely.  The  opportunity  given  me  of  speaking 
freely  was  one  which  I  took  advantage  of  to  the 
uttermost.  I  confess  I  was  more  than  once  in 
doubt  as  to  whether  I  had  not  ventured  too 
far,  and  begged  Sir  Loufti  to  abstain  from 
translating  anything  if  he  thought  that  it  might 
give  offence.  Sir  Loufti  invariably  replied  that 
there  need  be  no  cause  for  apprehension.  The 
Sultan  wished  to  hear,  and  I  could  say  what  I 
liked.  And  I  did. 

"  It  would  not  be  right  to  publish  a  faithful 
transcript  of  a  conversation  so  intimate,  which, 
among  other  subjects  touched  upon,  dealt  with 
the  functions  of  Constitutional  Sovereigns  in  the 
modern  State,  the  advantages  of  their  position 
as  compared  with  that  of  autocrats,  the  doctrine 
of  Ministerial  responsibility,  and  the  danger  of 
confounding  the  person  of  the  monarch  with  the 
policy  of  his  advisers. 

"  It  was  to  me  an  interesting,  and  to  the 
Sultan  an  unprecedented,  experience  to  hear 
the  most  advanced  doctrines  of  proper  Im- 
perialism discussed  in  the  Dolma  Bagtche 


THE   SULTAN  327 

Palace.  That  true  loyalty  to  His  Majesty  might 
sometimes  be  best  shown  by  offering  a  resolute 
opposition  to  evil  advisers  who  might  at  times 
surround  his  throne  was  obviously  to  him  some- 
thing of  a  paradox. 

"  Not  less  interesting  was  the  discussion  as  to 
the  best  way  of  treating  disaffection.  The  South 
African  Union  on  one  side  and  the  Albanian 
rising  on  the  other  came  in  as  apt  illustrations. 
The  Sultan  deplored  the  censures  pronounced 
upon  his  troops  and  his  generals  in  the  English 
Press.  I  said  that  in  future  we  should  have  a 
double  reason  for  censuring  atrocities,  for  not 
only  were  they  bad  in  themselves,  but  I  now 
knew  from  His  Majesty's  own  lips  that  they 
were  direct  acts  of  disobedience  to  his  commands. 
I  assured  him  that  I  should  deal  as  faithfully 
with  all  Turkish  generals  as  I  had  done  with 
British  commanders,  no  more  and  no  less. 

"  Then  we  discussed  Turkey's  relations  with 
England,  Germany,  and  Russia.  Here  we  were 
on  safer  ground  than  in  discussing  atrocity 
campaigns.  The  Sultan  exclaimed  with  some 
vehemence,  after  hearing  what  I  said  about 
Germany,  '  Now  I  see  that  you  are  a  man  of  a 
good  conscience.'  The  doctrine  of  alliances 
brought  up  the  analogy  of  polygamy,  and  the 
wittiest  thing  the  Sultan  said  was,  that  it  was 
usual  in  a  harem  to  have  a  favourite  wife,  but  in 
international  affairs  he  tried  to  treat  all  Powers 
with  equality. 

"  The  conversation,  which  lasted  more  than  an 
hour,  did  not  come  to  a  close  before  I  had  a  full 


328  MY   FATHER 

opportunity  of  bearing  strong  testimony  to  the 
fatal  and  suicidal  policy  of  attempting  to  govern 
Turkey  on  principles  of  centralisation  and 
Ottomanisation,  which,  if  applied  to  the  British 
or  German  Empires,  would  split  them  to  pieces 
in  six  weeks.  The  Sultan  repudiated  empha- 
tically any  desire  to  pursue  such  a  policy,  which, 
as  I  said  on  leaving,  showed  once  more  how 
much  wiser  he  was  than  some  of  his  Ministers. 
We  shook  hands  and  parted.  It  was  a  some- 
what pathetic  figure  of  a  man  which  I  looked 
upon  as  I  backed  out  of  the  Imperial  presence. 
He  was,  I  think,  somewhat  bewildered,  but 
certainly  interested.  I  had  not  bored  him,  which 
is  always  the  first  thing  to  be  dreaded  when 
saying  things.  I  had  occasionally  amused  him, 
and  possibly  1  had  succeeded  in  conveying  to  a 
mind,  not  quickly  receptive,  some  dim  inkling  of 
what  I  was  driving  at.  ( I  thank  you,'  he  said  as 
we  parted.  <  I  thank  you  very  much  for  all  you 
have  said  to  me.  I  hope  that  I  shall  profit  by 
your  words.' 

"  Sir  Loufti  took  me  back  to  his  room,  where 
we  had  a  lively  discussion  about  the  Sultan  and 
the  interview.  '  He  is  such  an  intelligent  man/ 
said  the  Chamberlain,  '  he  is  so  much  interested 
in  all  the  things  you  said.'  I  expressed  satisfac- 
tion, not  unmixed  with  surprise,  for  I  had 
certainly  *  said  things.'  '  The  Sultan  has  never 
had  such  a  conversation  before  with  anyone  in 
his  life,'  said  Sir  Loufti. 

"  He  told  me  many  things  about  the  Sultan's 
kind  heart,  of  his  ready  sympathy  with  distress. 


THE   SULTAN  329 

He  was  much  upset  by  the  fire  in  Stamboul ;  he 
had  ordered  that  there  should  be  no  music  in  the 
palace  for  three  days,  and  had  subscribed  £2,500 
to  the  relief  fund.  During  his  tour  in  the 
provinces  he  delighted  to  gather  the  children  of 
various  nationalities  around  him  and  stand  in 
their  midst  like  a  father.  '  Indeed,'  said  the 
enthusiastic  Chamberlain,  '  His  Majesty  is  the 
real  father  of  his  people.' 

"  '  I  am  delighted  to  hear  it,'  1  replied,  '  and 
most  happy  to  believe  it.  But  then,  you  know, 
we  so  often  heard  just  the  same  thing  about 
Abdul  Hamid.' 

" '  Oh,  but  that  is  quite  a  different  man ! ' 
exclaimed  Sir  Loufti.  Which  is  true." 

On  his  return  from  Constantinople  Father 
published  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  The  Sultan  and 
His  Policy,"  in  which  he  set  forth  his  reasons  for 
the  hopes  that  animated  him  and  the  facts  on 
which  they  were  based.  This  pamphlet  was 
translated  into  French,  and  appeared  in  the 
Turkish,  Greek,  Armenian,  Bulgarian,  and  other 
journals,  thus  covering  almost  every  language 
spoken  in  the  Balkan  States. 

"  I  went  to  Constantinople,"  he  wrote,  "  in  a 
somewhat  despondent  mood.  I  returned  with  a 
hope,  not  exultant,  but  firmly  based,  that  the 
Ottoman  Empire  may  not  only  pull  through 
the  present  crisis,  but  even  enjoy  a  new  lease  of 
life,  not  to  the  detriment  but  to  the  immense 
benefit  of  its  neighbours  ....  I  adhere  to  my 
deliberate  conviction  that  at  the  present  moment 


330  MY   FATHER 

the  Sultan  is  the  man  of  the  situation,  and  that 
the  hope  of  the  immediate  future  lies  in  the 
opportunity,  which  skilful  and  courageous 
Ministers  may  afford  him,  of  carrying  out  the 
policy  which  he  believes  to  be  the  best  for  the 
maintenance  and  the  preservation  of  the  Otto- 
man Empire  ....  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
Salonica  Congress  will  adopt  the  enlightened 
policy  of  the  present  Sultan,  and  resolutely 
refuse  to  be  tempted  to  resort  to  Hamidian 
methods  to  secure  an  unattainable  ideal  of 
uniformity." 

Scarcely  had  he  returned  to  England  before  Italy 
issued  her  ultimatum  and  the  Turks  were  plunged 
into  war  in  Tripoli.  He  at  once  proceeded  to  do 
all  he  could  to  start  an  agitation  all  over  Britain  to 
force  the  conflicting  parties  to  appeal  to  arbitra- 
tion. 

A  private  meeting  was  held  at  4,  Prince  of 
Wales'  Terrace,  at  the  invitation  of  Mr.  J.  E. 
Milholland,  at  which  the  following  resolution  was 
passed  :— 

"  That  this  meeting  composed  of  members  of 
the  leading  peace  and  arbitration  societies,  re- 
presentatives of  organised  labour  and  women's 
societies,  decides  to  send  delegates  to  Rome  and 
Constantinople  to  represent  to  the  Governments 
of  the  warring  Powers  their  obligations  and 
opportunities  under  The  Hague  Convention, 
and  to  make  a  final  appeal  to  each  of  them 
to  refer  the  merits  of  their  dispute  to  arbitra- 
tion ;  and,  further,  that  this  meeting  nominates 
one  of  its  number  to  proceed  to  Rome  and 


THE   SULTAN  331 

Mr.  W.  T.  Stead  to  proceed  to  Constantinople 
to  fulfil  this  mission." 

A  few  days  after  this,  Father  started  for 
Constantinople,  and  on  his  arrival  found  himself 
everywhere  a  persona  grata,  looked  to  on  all  sides 
for  help  and  counsel.  "Everything,"  he  wrote, 
"goes  like  clockwork." 

He  preached  the  policy  of  arbitration  as  opposed 
to  that  of  mediation.  Referring  to  the  question 
as  to  whether  or  no  the  Turks  would  appeal  to 
arbitration,  he  wrote :  "If  they  refuse  I  come 
home  at  once,  but  I  don't  think  they  will  refuse, 
1  was  not  sent  here  for  nothing." 

When  mediation  failed  and  Italy  refused  to 
arbitrate,  he  organised  a  great  Arbitration 
Campaign.  He  wrote : 

"CONSTANTINOPLE,  Oct.  Nth,   1911. 

"  I  have  succeeded  beyond  my  utmost  hopes. 
A  fortnight  ago  arbitration  was  never  mentioned  ; 
to-day  it  is  universally  demanded.  The  Grand 
Vizier,  speaking  for  the  Sultan  and  the  Cabinet, 
gives  his  public  endorsement  to  the  arbitration 
campaign  that  is  now  about  to  be  undertaken 
throughout  Europe.  The  Turks  are  not  satisfied 
with  merely  appealing  to  The  Hague  Tribunal, 
which  is  rendered  powerless  by  Italy's  refusal  to 
arbitrate  ;  they  demand  the  creation  of  a  per- 
manent High  Court  with  obligatory  arbitration. 
They  offer  to  submit  the  whole  dispute  to  such 
a  High  Court,  and  this  week  the  most  influential 
deputation  ever  dispatched  abroad  by  Turkey 
will  begin  its  pilgrimage  of  propaganda  and 
appeal  for  obligatory  arbitration  through  Europe. 


382  MY   FATHER 

"The  initiative  has  been  left  to  the  Turkish 
Inter-Parliamentary  group  because  the  Govern- 
ment is  hampered  by  the  negotiations  for  media- 
tion, but  the  Government  warmly  support  the 
action  that  has  been  taken.  The  deputation, 
selected  by  the  Parliamentary  Group,  consists 
of  six  Senators  and  Deputies,  representing  the 
Turks,  Arabs,  Syrians,  Armenians,  Greeks,  and 
Jews  of  the  Empire.  Its  president  is  Prince 
Ferid  Pasha,  the  Sultan's  brother-in-law ;  the 
deputation  contains  members  of  all  the  parties. 
Boustani  Effendi,  Deputy  for  Beyrout,  Talaat 
Bey  (former  Minister  of  the  Interior)  or  Djahid 
Bey  (editor  of  the  Tanin),  Mavrocordato  Effendi 
(former  Minister  of  Agriculture),  and  Noura- 
doughian  EfFendi  (formerly  Minister  of  Public 
Works),  and  the  other  members  will  probably 
start  on  Saturday  for  Bucharest,  where  they  will 
add  to  their  number  a  Roumanian  Deputy. 
Thence  they  proceed  to  Budapesth,  and  there 
will  add  Hungarian,  Bulgarian,  and  Servian 
Deputies ;  thence  to  Vienna,  Berlin,  St.  Peters- 
burg, Stockholm,  Christiania,  Copenhagen,  The 
Hague,  Brussels,  Berne,  Paris,  and  London. 
The  deputation  will  then  number  twenty,  repre- 
senting fifteen  States  in  all,  and  making  a 
demonstration  all  along  the  route  in  favour  of 
obligatory  arbitration. 

"  The  scheme  has  already  been  assured  of  the 
approval  of  Baron  Marschall  von  Bieberstein, 
and  has  been  promised  by  the  Ambassadors  a 
warm  welcome  in  Germany,  Russia,  and 
England.  The  journey  will  last  over  thirty 
days.  The  effect  will  be  cumulative ;  every- 


THE   SULTAN  333 

.  where  an  appeal  will  be  made  to  the 
peoples. 

u  The  draft  manifesto  of  the  Turkish  deputa- 
tion is  still  under  discussion.  It  begins  : — 

" '  Like  a  brigand  from  the  mountains,  the 
Italian  Government,  in  time  of  profound  peace, 
has  suddenly  swooped  down  upon  our  country 
and  is  trying  to  make  Tripoli  her  captive.  It  is 
our  turn  to-day  ;  it  may  be  yours  to-morrow. 
We  do  not  ask  you  to  support  our  cause  against 
the  cause  of  Italy  ;  still  less  do  we  ask  to  act  as 
judges  in  our  own  cause.  We  ask  for  peace, 
for  a  cessation  of  hostilities ;  and,  above  all,  we 
ask  that  the  whole  dispute  may  be  at  once 
referred  to  impartial  arbitration." 

My  Father  wrote  in  a  private  letter  at  the  time, 
"  Even  if  the  Turks  fail  to  carry  out  the  great 
scheme,  I  am  unspeakably  grateful  to  God  for 
having  employed  me  in  this  work." 

The  Sheikh-ul-Islam  agreed  to  his  preaching  in 
the  great  Mosque  of  St.  Sophia — where  never 
Christian  has  been  permitted  to  speak  since  the 
conquest  of  Constantinople — a  holy  war  against 
all  who  make  war,  without  first  offering  arbitration, 
but  the  idea  had  to  be  abandoned  as  too 
dangerous. 

He  had  a  second  interview  with  the  Sultan,  which 
he  said  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  interviews 
of  his  life.  He  made  the  Sultan  laugh  heartily  for 
the  first  time  since  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  The 
Sultan  promised  £1,000  towards  the  £20,000  neces- 
sary for  the  Campaign,  and  wished  Father  to  accept 
a  present,  which,  however,  Father  refused  to  do. 


334  MY   FATHER 

The  Sultan  later  presented  him  with  a  gold  cigar- 
ette case  with  his  (the  Sultan's)  name  picked  out  in 
diamonds  and  rubies.  This  my  Father  only  accepted 
on  condition  that  he  might  be  allowed  to  present 
his  Majesty  with  a  present  in  return.  This  present 
took  the  form  of  a  fountain  pen  with  which  he 
requested  the  Sultan  to  sign  the  Arbitration 
Treaties ;  treaties  which  faithlessness  to  peace 
principles  prevented  ever  being  drafted. 

The  same  day  on  which  he  saw  the  Sultan  he 
was  entertained  at  a  banquet  by  Damad  Ferid 
Pasha,  the  Sultan's  brother-in-law,  to  which  the 
Committee  of  the  Interparliamentary  Union  were 
invited  to  meet  him. 

The  £20,000  was  promised  and  everything  seemed 
to  indicate  that  without  doubt  the  pilgrimage  would 
be  undertaken.  When  he  himself,  owing  to  lack 
of  private  funds,  had  reluctantly  to  return  to 
England  ;  for  he  always  made  it  a  firm  rule  never 
to  accept  money  in  return  for  his  peace  work. 
Hence  he  could  not  accept  the  money  so  kindly 
offered  to  him  by  the  Turks. 

Without  his  presence  amongst  them  to  inspire 
and  urge  them  onward,  first  one  excuse  and  then 
another  was  brought  forward  to  postpone  the  date 
of  starting,  till  finally  the  pilgrimage  was  given  up 
altogether. 

Thus  ended  what  would  have  been  one  of  the 
greatest  demonstrations  in  favour  of  Arbitration  ever 
known,  and  in  his  last  effort  on  behalf  of  one  of  his 
greatest  ideals  my  Father  was  doomed  to  disappoint- 
ment. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

HIS    COMING    TRANSITION 

"  I  have  finished  the  work  which  Thou  gavest  me  to  do." — 
St.  John.  chap.  17. 

DID  he,  as  April,  1912,  drew  near  have  any  inti- 
mation or  warning  of  his  coming  transition  ?  Many 
have  asked  that  question.  The  answer  comes 
without  a  moment's  hesitation,  "Yes" — but  also 
without  hesitation  we  may  truly  say  he  himself 
did  not  realise  what  was  the  import  of  these 
messages  and  signs.  He  realised  that  there  was  a 
great  spiritual  awakening  before  him,  and  that  the 
troubles  and  anxieties,  and  the  strain  of  overwork, 
at  times  almost  overwhelming  to  him,  were  to  be 
removed,  and  he  was  to  go  forward  refreshed  and 
invigorated  to  the  great  work  ahead. 

He  never  had  any  direct  signpost  as  to  what 
that  work  was  to  be.  He  felt  at  times  it  was  to 
be  a  great  campaign  right  through  America — 
lecturing  and  writing  for  peace  and  spiritualism— 
but  this  was  only  conjecture,  as,  he  said,  he  had 
"  nothing  to  go  on."  He  felt  he  would  live  to  be 


335 


336  MY   FATHER 

very  old,  for  he  knew  so  much  work  lay  ahead— 
the  work  did  lie  ahead,  but  the  Senior  Partner  had 
other  plans  and  places ;  the  knowledge  of  where 
and   how   was  not   vouchsafed   to    His    disciple's 
conscious  mind. 

I  say  "  conscious  mind,"  because  subconsciously 
he  undoubtedly  knew. 

During  the  winter  months  he  was  constantly 
receiving  messages  bidding  him  "  put  his  house  in 
order."  Now  was  the  time  ;  for  the  work  that  lay 
ahead  would  take  him  far  afield.  So  he  put  his 
house  in  order — arranged  things  in  office  and 
home,  often  speaking  of  how  he  wished  things 
carried  on,  if  he  should  be  away  any  length  of 
time.  He  went  through  many  of  his  papers, 
sorting,  tidying,  arranging  and  labelling,  and  in 
many  ways  seemed  to  be  settling  matters  for  what 
might  be  an  absence  of  some  months. 

Some  psychics  have  since  claimed,  one  in 
particular,  that  he  gave  him  definite  warning  of 
coming  death.  This  psychic  may  have  seen  it  in 
his  hand  and  may  have  told  his  own  friends— 
about  that  I  am  not  in  a  position  to  speak.  But 
that  he  did  not  give  my  Father  any  definite  warn- 
ing I  do  know,  indeed,  prophesied  things  to  happen 
in  three  years'  time.  Father  went  to  see  him 
twice.  Once  I  was  with  him  and  took  notes,  the 
other  time  a  friend  took  notes.  Both  sittings  were 
very  indefinite,  and  the  conditions  appeared  to  be 
so  mixed  that  nothing  tangible  was  given — he  did 
get  gloom  and  disaster.  So  much  so  that  when  I 
told  Father  I  had  written  out  the  notes  carefully, 


HIS   COMING   TRANSITION        337 

he  said,  "  Why  did  you  trouble  to  do  that  ?  It 
was  all  such  a  jumble  and  so  intangible  and  gloomy 
that  it  seems  to  me  you  have  wasted  your  time. 

Mr. is,  I  believe,  a  good  psychic,  but  as  yet 

very  undeveloped."  That  in  speaking  at  a  trumpet 
seance l  after  his  passing,  Father  thanked  this 
psychic  for  his  warnings  I  think  is  easily  explicable  ; 
(1)  to  get  his  message  through  he  had  to  make  part 
use  of  the  psychic's  brains,  and  he  had  convinced 
himself  he  had  warned  my  Father.  (2)  Very 
possibly,  behind  all  the  jumble  of  intangible 
phrases  there  was  some  warning,  the  key  to  which 

1  For  those  who  do  not  understand  the  meaning  of  "  Trumpet 
Seance"  or  "Trumpet  Medium,"  it  may  be  well  to  explain  that 
at  these  seances  an  aluminium  conical  tube  about  2  ft.  6  in.  in 
length,  open  at  both  ends,  the  aperture  at  the  smaller  end  is 
about  1  in.  in  diameter  and  at  the  larger  4  to  6  inches  in  diameter, 
is  placed  on  the  floor  near  the  sitters.  This  tube  appears  to  con- 
centrate force  and  to  enable  those  on  the  other  side  to  speak  with 
the  direct  voice.  It  has  something  the  same  effect  as  speaking  on 
the  long  distance  telephone.  The  medium  possessing  the  subtle 
power  necessary  to  carry  out  this  means  of  communication,  was,  in 
this  case,  Mrs.  Wreidt  of  America,  the  well-known  Trumpet 
Medium.  She  visited  Julia's  Bureau  during  Father's  lifetime  and 
was  to  have  returned  with  him  from  America  to  pay  her  second 
visit.  Alas,  she  had  to  come  alone,  and  it  is  to  her  I  am  indebted 
for  many  talks  with  my  Father  since  his  passing,  and  it  wa.s 
through  her  presence  in  the  room,  that  he  was  able  to  speak  the 
words  with  which  I  end  this  book. 

During  the  seances  Mrs.  Wreidt  appears  as  normal  as  any  of 
the  sitters — there  is  no  state  of  trance.  Often  she  will  be  talking 
with  the  sitters  whilst  spirit  voices  are  speaking  through  the 
trumpet.  These  seances  are  usually  held  in  the  dark.  Good 
results  have  been  obtained  in  the  light  also,  but  the  voices  are 
never  so  strong,  and  it  is  necessary,  when  sitting  in  the  light,  for 
the  sitter  to  hold  the  trumpet  to  his  ear. 

7. 


338  MY  FATHER 

may  have  been  made  plain  to  my  Father — as  many 
of  the  messages  have  been  made  plain  to  us — since 
his  passing. 

That  he  felt  there  was  to  be  a  severance  and  a 
parting,  that  this  part  of  his  life  work  was  finished, 
and  he  was  to  take  up  other  work,  is  certain.  How 
much  he  realised  this  consciously  is  difficult  to  say, 
but  he  did  many  things  which  showed  that  a 
change  was  coming.  At  the  last  Julia  Circle, 
before  he  left  on  April  3rd — very  few  of  the 
members  were  present — but  a  few  gathered  and 
places  were  left  for  the  absent  who  were  with  them 
in  thought.  A  sense  of  sadness  and  parting  was 
over  the  Circle  as  it  met  with  the  "  Chief  "  for  the 
last  time  before  he  sailed  to  the  other  world  across 
the  Atlantic.  Also  a  sense  of  exultation  at  the 
thought  of  the  work  that  lay  ahead,  and  a  feel- 
ing of  comfort  that  he  was  to  get  a  few  days' 
well  earned  rest  and  benefit  amongst  the  sea 
breezes. 

The  "  Chief"  (as  my  Father  was  always  called  by 
the  members  of  Julia's  Circle)  took  the  service  and 
chose  for  the  Bible  Reading  the  seventeenth  chapter 
of  St.  John,  in  which  Christ,  feeling  the  hour  draw 
nigh  when  He  must  leave  the  World,  prays  God 
to  glorify  Him,  to  preserve  His  apostles,  and  to 
glorify  them,  and  all  other  believers  with  Him  in 
Heaven. 

The  hymn,  too,  told  of  parting  and  farewell,  for 
Julia  expressed  the  wish  it  should  be  Harriet 
Auber's  "Our  Blest  Redeemer,"  and  wrote  the 
following  message  : — 


HIS   COMING   TRANSITION         389 

1  "April  3rd,  1912.  It  is  a  solemn  thought 
that  after  to-night  my  beloved  circle  may  not 
meet  in  its  entirety  for  some  time.  But  hold  the 
meeting  weekly,  in  all  faith  and  confidence,  and 
in  good  time  the  joy  of  re-union  will  more  than 
atone  for  the  pain  of  separation.  Much  that  is 
of  great  importance  will  take  place  before  then. 
I  particularly  wish  dear  William  to  preside  at 
the  service  to-night.  Sing <  Our  Blest  Redeemer. 
God's  blessing  on  you  all,  and  a  good  journey  to 
my  beloved  comrade. 

"  JULIA   A.  AMES." 

On  the  following  Sunday — Easter  Sunday — Julia 
wrote  as  follows  : — 

"  My  dear  William  will  find  that  the  ostensible 
object  of  his  journey  is  but  the  pivot  on  which 
the  real  and  greater  issue  turns. 

"  JULIA  A.  AMES." 

On  the  same  day  he  received  the  following  mes- 
sage from  a  high  spirit  called  "  Hilarion,"  from 
whom  he  had  received  many  messages  during  the 
past : — 

"  Let  me  say  to  my  dear  friend  and  helper, 
who  goes  forth  so  soon  across  the  sea,  that  what 
has  been  conveyed  to  him  as  to  the  greatness  of 
his  coming  mission  is  but  the  merest  faint  fore- 
shadowing of  the  distant  truth.  In  each  age, 
new  aspects  of  truth  are  revealed  to  mankind. 
But  only  the  chosen  few  can  discern,  and  through 

1  Given  through  Miss  Harper's  hand 

z  2 


340  MY   FATHER 

their  vision  the  rest  of  humanity  must  gaze  until 
its  sight  has  grown  capable  of  seeing  also. 

"  Let  my  dear  friend  rest  assured  that  he  will 
be  left  in  no  uncertainty  when  the  summons 
comes.  Clear  and  unmistakable  will  be  the 
clarion  call. 

"  HILARION." 


CHAPTER  XXX 

HIS    PASSING    AND    RETURN 

"  Listen,  do  you  not  hear  the  spirit  people  singing  1  They  are 
singing  all  around  you,  the  most  beautiful  music.  Can  no  one 
hear  them  1  They  are  singing  very  softly.  A  voice  says :  *  I 
will  guide  thee  with  my  counsel,  and  afterwards  receive  thee  into 
glory.'  That  comes  for  the  gentleman  who  is  away,  Mr.  Stead." 
— Given  through  MRS.  WESLEY  ADAMS,  in  the  Upper  Room, 
April  10th,  1912. 

"  He  stood  alone,  at  the  edge  of  the  deck  near  the  stern,  in 
silence,  and,  what  seemed  to  me,  a  prayerful  attitude,  or  one  of 
profound  meditation." — Extract  from  a  letter  from  MRS.  SHELLEY, 
one  of  the  survivors. 

HE  spent  his  last  Sunday  before  leaving  at 
Hay  ling  Island,  and  gloried  in  the  beautiful 
weather,  the  blue  sea,  and  the  sunshine. 

On  Tuesday  he  bade  farewell  to  his  friends  and 
left  Waterloo  by  the  9.45  train  on  Wednesday 
morning.  My  mother  accompanied  him  to 
Southampton  and  together  they  went  over  the 
huge  liner  which  was  to  take  him  on  his  journey 
to  the  other  side.  He  was  full  of  enthusiasm  and 
delight  at  the  size  and  magnificence  of  the  ship 
about  to  take  her  maiden  voyage,  and  his  cabin- 
as  he  wrote  me  after  leaving — was  "  a  love  of  a 
cabin,  and  is  like  a  room  with  a  window  about  4  ft. 


341 


342  MY   FATHER 

by  2  ft.  looking  out  over  the  sunlit  sea  .  .  .  the 
ship  is  a  splendid  monstrous  floating  Babylon." 

He  stood  watching  and  waving  to  my  mother 
till  the  ship  was  lost  to  view.  So  he  started  on  his 
journey. 

He  wrote  to  many  friends  and  posted  letters 
from  Cherbourg  and  Queenstown.  In  the  letter 
which  I  received  from  Queenstown  on  the  morning 
of  the  18th  April — when  he  had  already  "passed 
on  "  —he  wrote  :— 

"  By  the  time  you  get  this  I  shall  be  half-way 
across  the  Atlantic.  At  present  the  sky  is 
beautifully  blue  and  the  sea  as  smooth  as  a  mill 
pond. 

"  I  am  somewhat  curious  as  to  the  work  in 
front  of  me.  I  know  my  speech  will  be  an  im- 
portant speech.1  But  that  is  only  one,  and 
possibly  not  the  most  important  work  before 


me." 


In  another  letter  he  wrote  : — 

"  I  am  going  to  America  to  deliver  one  speech. 
But  I  feel  as  if  that  were  but  the  Asses  which 
Saul  went  forth  to  seek  when  he  was  crowned 
King  of  Israel.  What  else  I  am  to  do  I  do  not 
know.  Something  is  awaiting  me,  some  im- 
portant work  the  nature  of  which  will  be 
disclosed  to  me  in  good  time.  But  what  it  is, 
whether  journalistic,  spiritual,  social,  or  political, 

1  He  was  on  his  way  to  New  York  in  response  to  an  invitation 
to  make  a  speech  on  "  Universal  Peace  "  at  the  Men  and  Religion 
Forward  Movement  Congress  in  Carnegie  Hall. 


E.  H.  Mills. 

FATHER,  WITH   OLIVER  CROMWELL'S   PISTOL,    A   STATUE   OF 

GENERAL    GORDON   AND   THE   COPY   OF   "THE    IMITATION" 

OF  THOMAS  A  KEMPIS  GIVEN  HIM  BY  GORDON. 


HIS   PASSING   AND   RETURN      343 

I  know  not.  I  await  my  marching  orders,  being 
assured  that  He  who  has  called  me  will  make 
clear  His  good  will  and  pleasure  in  due  season." 

He  received  his  "  marching  orders  "  on  that  dark 
night  in  mid-ocean. 

We  can  imagine  how  he  would  receive  them. 
From  the  survivors  we  learn  a  little  about  the  last 
moments.  His  steward  tells  us— 

"  From  the  time  Mr.  Stead  changed  from 
Crawford's  room  he  was  writing  all  the  time  and 
spoke  very  seldom  to  anyone.  On  the  day  of 
the  accident  he  did  not  feel  well  and  had  his 
supper  in  his  room.  I  did  not  see  him  again 
until  after  the  accident.  Then  I  went  to  see  all 
my  passengers.  He  had  gone  on  deck  but  soon 
came  back.  I  said  '  Mr.  Stead,  you  will  have  to 
put  on  a  life-belt.'  He  said  '  Cunningham,  what 
is  that  for  ? '  I  said,  '  You  may  need  it.'  I  put 
the  belt  over  his  head.  We  bade  each  other 
good-bye,  and  that  was  the  last  I  saw  of  him." 

Mr.   Frederick  Seward,  the  New  York  Lawyer 
—who  sat  next  him  at  table  and  had  had  many 
talks  with  him  during  the  previous  days,  says  :— 

"  He  was  one  of  the  very  few  who  were 
actually  on  deck  when  the  iceberg  was  struck. 
I  saw  him  soon  after  and  was  thoroughly  scared, 
but  he  preserved  the  most  beautiful  composure. 

"  Whether  he  stayed  on  board  or  sought 
safety  by  leaping  into  the  sea,  I  cannot  tell,  but 
I  do  know  he  faced  death  with  philosophic  calm." 
We  have  even  later  news  from  Mrs.  William 


344  MY   FATHER 

Shelley,  who,  with  her  mother,  left  in  the  last 
life-boat  when  "  the  passing "  was  very  near. 
The  following  is  an  extract  from  her  letter  to 
Miss  Harper — written  after  she  had  partly 
recovered  from  the  shock  of  that  terrible  night  :— 

"  I  was  only  on  deck  a  short  time,  until 
mother  and  I  took  to  the  lifeboat. 

"  Your  beloved  Chief,  together  with  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Strauss,  attracted  attention  even  in  that 
awful  hour,  on  account  of  their  superhuman 
composure,  and  divine  work. 

"  When  we,  the  last  life-boat  left,  and  they 
could  do  no  more,  he  stood  alone  at  the  edge 
of  the  deck,  in  silence,  and,  what  seemed  to 
me,  a  prayerful  attitude  or  one  of  profound 
meditation. 

"  You  ask  if  he  wore  a  life-belt.  Alas !  no, 
they  were  too  scarce. 

"  My  last  glimpse  of  the  Titanic  showed 
him  standing  in  the  same  attitude  and  place." 

Three  weeks  after  his  passing  he  came  to  the 
Upper  Room  in  the  Inner  Sanctuary  of  Julia's 
Bureau.  In  that  room  where  he  had  himself  so 
often  spoken  of  the  life  to  come  and  conversed 
with  those  who  had  already  passed  onward,  he — 
the  beloved  Chief — came  and  spoke  to  those  who 
prayed  and  waited,  knowing  he  would  come. 
Clearly  he  showed  his  face  that  all  might  see,  and 
as  it  faded  into  darkness — his  voice  rang  through 
the  room  and  he  spake  saying: — "All  I  told  you 
is  true. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


ADAMS,  Miss  Isabel,  121 

Africa,  South :  visit  to,  1904,  274-6  ; 
the  South  African  War,  229,  230 

Ames,  Miss  Julia :  meeting  with, 
157-8 ;  first  appearance  after 
death,  178 ;  Julia's  Bureau  and 
Communications  from  the  Other 
Side,  set  under  Julia 

Arnold,  Matthew,  49,  72 

Atlantic  crossed  for  the  first  time, 
1893,  211 

Automatic  Writing ;  how  my  Father 
began,  170 ;  first  messages,  174-6 ; 
communications  between  living 
persons,  188-193 ;  messages  from 
Julia  A.  Ames,  see  under  Julia 

BALFOUB,  Arthur  J.,  128 

Beit,  Alfred,  249 

Bell,  J.  Hyslop,  47,  91 

Besant,  Mrs.,  155-6 

Beust,  Count,  72 

Blavatsky,  Madame,  154 

"  Books  for  the  Bairns,"  226 

Booth,  General  Bramwell,  86,  132-3 

Booth,  General  William,  84-5 

Borderland,     Investigation     of,     see 

Psychical  Research 
Borderland  quoted,  212-3,  215,  219, 

220 

Boras,  Dr.,  121 
Botha,     Pietrus     Johannes,      Spirit 

Photographs  of,  245 
Boursnell,  Mr.,  254-71 
Brocklehurst,  Major-General,  109 
Bulgarian  Atrocities,  1876,51,  56-71, 

94 

Bureau,  Julia's,  see  Julia's  Bureau 
Butler,  Mrs.  Josephine,  93,  124,  146, 

235 


CABIN  on  the  Titanic,  341 
Cambridge  IHouse,   Wimbledon,   91, 

157,  294,  313 

Canterbury,  Archbishop  of,  126,  128 
Capital  punishment,  93 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  Visit  to,  51,  72-77 
Catholic  Church,  150-153 
Chicago,  see  under  United  States 
Children  :  responsibility  of  parentage, 

53-5  ;      my      Father's      love      of 

children,  226 

Christian  Endeavour  World,  63 
Christmas  in  Holloway  Gaol,    1885, 

145-7 
Clifford,  Dr.,  Quotation  from  letter 

to,  139 

Coldbath-in-the-Fields  Prison,  135 
Constantinople,  see  under  Turkey 
Contagious    Diseases    Acts,   Crusade 

against,  93 

Contemporary  Review,  80 
Courtney,  Lord,  72 
Cromwell,    Oliver  :    Essay    on,    26  ; 

projected  "  History  of  the  Puritan 

Movement,"  32 

D  -  ,  Mrs.,  Messages  from,  172-4 
DagUad,  229 

Daily  News  referred  to,  57,  282 
Daily  Paper  :  Dream  respecting  the 

Daily  Paper,  272-3  ;  its  launching, 

274  ;  other  reference,  283 
Daily    Telegraph    referred    to,     80, 

91 


Darlington:    My    Father's    Life    at 
Darlington,   51- 


91  ;  Town's  Meet- 
ing against  Turkey,  58 


Dilke,  Ashton,  118 
Dilke,  Sir  Charles,  177 
Doubles,  220-224 


847 


348 


INDEX 


Dramatic  Incident,  195-210 
Durham  Thirteen,  93 

EASTNOR  CASTLE,  visit  to,  177 

Edinburgh,  38 

Egypt  and  the  Soudan,  108-11 

Embleton  Manse,  3 

English- Speaking  Reunion,  239-40 

FAWCETT,  Mrs.,  235 

First  Avenue  Hotel,  dinner  at,  296 

Fisher,  Lord,  112 

Flora  Cottage,  52 

Fooks,  Mark,  95-6 

Frederick,  Messages  from,  174-6 

Freeman,  E.  A.,  51,  58 

"  From  the  Old  World  to  the  New," 

194-210 
Froude,  J.  A.,  72 

GARRETT,  E.,  251 

Ghosts,  see  under  Psychical  Research 

Gladstone,  W.  E.  :  first  meeting, 
72,  77  ;  letters  to  my  Father,  59,  60  ; 
his  pamphlet  "  Bulgarian  Horrors,' 
58  ;  speech  on  Blackheath  Common, 
62-71  ;  other  reference,  51 

Gordon,  General :  my  Father's  inter- 
view with  Gordon,  107-11 ;  friend- 
ship  with  Cecil  Rhodes,  233 

Grainey  Hill,  life  at,  86-7 

Greenwood,  James,  90 

Grey,  Earl,  249 

HAWKSLEY,  B.  F.,  243,  249,  252 

Hayling  Island,  226,  341 

Hearst,  W.  R.,  291 

Helpers,  Association  of,  240 

Hilarion,  339 

Holloway  Gaol,  136-147 

"How  I  know  the  Dead   Return": 

article  referred  to,  291 
Howden-on-Tyne,  6,  51,  136 
Hughes,  Hugh  Price,  139,  146 

ITALY  :  The  War  in  Tripoli,  330 

JAMESON,  Dr.  (now  Sir  Leander  S.), 

229,  246,  252 
Jobson,  Christopher,  3 
Jobson,  Isabella,  3 
Jobson,  John,  3 
Journalism  :  ideals  of  editorship  and 

journalism,    48-50 ;     my     father's 

editorial  creed,  104-5 
Julia  and  Julia's  Bureau :  automatic 

communications    from   Julia,  179- 

188,  215,  288-90,  291,  296,  297-302, 


315,  339;  the  purpose  of  Julia's 
Bureau,  292-4 ;  opening  of  the 
Bureau,  1909,  294-6  ;  the  Morning 
Circle,  314-7  ;  Julia's  Prayer,  315  ; 

Cible  uses  and  abuses  of  the 
*au,  297-302;  the  Bureau's 
rules  and  conditions,  302-310;  cost 
of  maintaining  the  Bureau,  311-3; 
attempt  to  expose  the  Bureau,  313  ; 
results  after  three  months'  ex- 
perience, 311  ;  my  Father's  return 
to  the  Bureau,  344 

KINGLAKE,  A.  W.,  72 
Kireeff,  Nicholas,  61 
Kruger,  President,  230,  248 

LAST  moments,  343-45 

Lecky,  W.  E.  H.,  77 

"Letters  from  Julia,"  216-8,  288,  297 

London,  Bishop  of,  126,  128 

Loreburn,  Lord  (Sir  Robert  Reid),  126 

Loutfi  Bey,  Sir,  320 

Love  Affairs,  15-17,  41-43 

Lowell,     Russell  :      His      influence, 

26-31 ;   extract  from   letter,   232 ; 

"Extreme  Unction,"  28;    "Pious 

Editor's     Creed,"     48-50;     other 

reference,  69 

M.,  MRS.,  Spirit  photographs  of,  239 

Mackenzie,  Mr.,  233 

Magazinctum,  36-37 

Maiden  Tribute,  122-135 

Manchester  Guardian,  229 

Manning,  Cardinal :  Letter  to  my 
Father  in  prison,  137;  other 
references,  126,  128,  146 

"  Masterpiece  Library,"  226 

Mathews,  Henry,  128 

Mediums,  225,  308 

Milholland,  J.  E.,  330 

Mills,  Sir  Charles,  234 

Milner,  Lord :  In  South  Africa,  248, 
251;  other  references,  116,  117 
229,  252 

Mitchell,  Mr.,  249 

Morley,  Lord :  Editor  of  Pall  Mall 
Gazette,  90,  115-120;  other  refer- 
ences, 126,  128 

Morning  circle  of  Julia's  Bureau,  315 

Mowbray  House,  294 

NAVY:  "The  Truth  about  the  Navy, 

112-3 
Newcastle       Charity       Organisation 

Society,  44 


INDEX 


349 


Northern  Echo,  45,  46,  51,  61,  63,  77, 

79,  88,  89,  90,  92,  93,  94 
Novikoff,     Madame :     Beginning    of 

friendship    with   my.  Father,    61  ; 

her  salon  at  Symonds's  hotel,  72 

Pall  Mall  Gazette,  90,  91,  104,  105, 
106,  110,  112,  113,  114,  115,  116, 
117,  118,  120,  153 

Parentage  :  My  Father's  parentage, 
1-14  ;  responsibility  of  parentage, 
54 

Passion  Play  at  Ober  Ammergau,  152 

Peace :  Peace  mission,  1888,  149 ; 
peace  crusade,  1898,  227-8 ;  first 
Hague  conference,  228 

Peters,  Alfred,  medium,  107 

Photographing  invisible  beings, 
254-271 

"Pope  and  the  New  Era,"  quoted, 
150-52 

Prayer :  My  Father's  belief  in 
prayer,  277-81 

Premonitions,  88,  114-20,  142,  145 

Psychical  Research  (see  also  Auto- 
matic writing)  :  investigation  of 
borderland  phenomena,  159 ; 
reasons  for  investigation,  168  ;  the 
science  of  ghosts,  162-4 ;  uncon- 
scious personality,  164-7 ;  my 
Father's  first  seance,  97-103; 
trumpet  seance,  337 ;  General 
Gordon  control,  107 ;  doubles,  219  ; 
mediums,  225,  308;  premonitions, 
88,  114-20,  142,  145;  spirit 
photography,  254-71  ;  experiences 
recorded  in  "  From  the  Old  World 
to  the  New,"  194-210  ;  the  publica- 
tion of  Borderland,  210;  "Real 
Ghost  Stories,"  159;  "Letters 
from  Julia,"  216-8,  297;  Julia's 
Bureau,  see  Julia's  Bureau 

RAID,  Jameson,  246 

"  Real  Ghost  Stories,"  159 

Review  of  Reviews  :  Its  founding,  153, 
238  ;  Christmas  numbers,  159,  195, 
272 ;  American  edition,  154  ; 
Australian  edition,  154 ;  other 
references,  240,  283 

Revival  in  Wales,  Pamphlet  on,  279 

Rhodes,  Cecil :  His  friendship  with 
my  Father,  231-253;  letter  on, 
236  ;  letters  from  my  father,  237  ; 
letters  to  my  Father,  238  ;  his  wills, 
241-245,  248-50,  252;  last  will 
and  testament,  248,  252  ;  scholar- 


ship   scheme,    245 ;    spirit  photo- 
graph of,  266 

Rosebery,  Lord,  249 

Russell,  Lord,  of  Killowen  (Sir 
Charles  Russell),  128,  129 

Russia  :  My  Father's  Russian  Policy, 
148-50  ;  visit  to  Russia,  1898,  227  ; 
Russia  and  Bulgaria,  71;  "The 
M.P.  for  Russia,"  57,  61 

Russia,  Tsar  Nicholas  II.  of,  227 

St.  James's  Gazette,  90 

Salvation  Army  :  First  introduction 
to,  81-6;  "Secular"  Salvation 
Army,  142 

Scholars'  International  Correspon- 
dence, 226 

Scholarships,  Rhodes,  245,  249-50 

Seances,  see  under  Psychical  research 

Seward,  Frederick,  extract  from 
letter  from,  343 

Sheffield  Independent,  35,  45 

Shelley,  Mrs.  William,  extract  from 
letter  from,  344 

Shipwreck,  Account  of  imaginary, 
197 

Silcoates  School,  18-25 

Smith,  Capt.,  196 

Social  Purity  :  The  C.  D.  Acts,  93 ; 
"The  Maiden  Tribute"  and  the 
passing  of  the  Criminal  Law  Amend 
ment  Act,  122-35 

Somerset,  Lady  Henry,  177,  184 

Stansfeld,  Mr.,  72 

Stead,  Miss,  Letters  to,  20,  138 

Stead,  Miss  Hettie,  23 

Stead,  Thomas,  2 

Stead,  Rev.  William,  3,  7-14,  120 

Stead,  Mrs.  William,  4-6,  37 

Stead,  W.  T.  :  Parentage,  2-14 ; 
his  mother,  4-6,  37  ;  tribute  to  his 
father,  7-14 ;  early  childhood, 
15-18  ;  school-days,  18-25  ;  religi- 
ous revival  at  Silcoates  School, 
19-20  ;  letters  from  school,  20-23  ; 
joined  the  Congregational  Church, 
24 ;  apprenticed  as  office  boy  in 
merchant's  counting  house,  1863, 
25  ;  second  conversion,  32  ;  threat- 
ene  with  blindness,  1868,  27,  33  ; 
organised  social  and  religious 
agencies  in  Howden,  33 ;  started 
the  Magazinctum :  Journal  of  the 
Stead  family,  1867,  36-7  ;  became 
junior  clerk,  38 ;  first  clairvoyant 
experience,  38  ;  love  affairs,  15-17, 
41-43  ;  initiation  into  journalism, 
44-45 ;  editor  of  the  Northern  Echo, 
1871,  48 ;  marriage  with  Emma 


350 


INDEX 


Lucy  Wilson,  1873,  51;  C.O.S. 
formed  in  Newcastle  as  result  of 
my  Fathers  letter  to  Northern 
Daily  Express,  44  ;  birth  of  first 
child,  53 ;  Bulgarian  atrocity 
agitation,  1876-8,  56-71  ;  intro- 
duction to  Madame  Novikoff's 
Salon,  1877,  72  ;  first  meeting  with 
Carlyle,  1877,  72-77  ;  first  meeting 
with  Gladstone,  1877,  77-80 ;  first 
connection  with  the  Salvation 
Army,  1879,  81 ;  first  premonition, 
1880,  88;  first  book  published, 
"The  Durham  Thirteen,"  93; 
general  policy  whilst  editor  of  the 
Northern  Echo,  92-94 ;  joined  the 
Pall  Mall  Gazette,  1880,  92,  104 ; 
first  seance,  1881,  97-103;  inter- 
view with  General  Gordon,  107-11 ; 
wrote  "The  Truth  about  the  Navy" 
articles,  1884,  112-3  ;  second  pre- 
monition, 1883,  114-30 ;  death  of 
his  father,  1884,  120 ;  publication 
of  "The  Maiden  Tribute  of 
Modern  Babylon,"  1885,  122-35 ; 
the  trial  at  the  Old  Bailey,  128-33 ; 
the  sentence,  134 ;  in  Hollo  way 
Goal,  136-47  ;  premonition  of  his 
death,  142,  145 ;  received  the 
message  "Be  a  Christ,"  146 ; 
Christmas  party  in  gaol,  147 ;  first 
peace  mission,  1888,  149-50 ;  wrote 
"The  Truth  about  Russia,"  1888, 
148;  visit  to  Rome,  1889,  150; 
visit  to  Ober  Ammergau,  152 ; 
resigned  editorship  of  Pall  Mall 
Gazette,  1890,  153;  founded  the 
Review  of  Reviews,  1890,  153; 
founded  the  American  Review  of 
Reviews,  1891,  154 ;  founded  the 
Australian  Review  of  Reviews,  1892, 
154 ;  meeting  with  Madame 
Blavatsky,  1888,  155;  meeting  with 
Miss  Julia  A.  Ames,  1890, 
157-159;  published  "Real  Ghost 
Stories,"  159  ;  started  investigation 
of  Borderland  phenomena,  159-169; 
first  automatic  messages,  1892, 
170-93 ;  psychic  experiences  re- 
corded in  ' '  From  the  Old  World 
to  the  New,"  194  ;  visited  Chicago 
Exhibition,  1893,  211 ;  wrote  "  If 
Christ  came  to  Chicago,"  211  ; 
founded  Borderland,  1893,  211-3  ; 
published  "Letters  from  Julia," 
216;  published  "Books  for  the 
Bairns"  and  "  Masterpiece 
Library,"  1897,  226;  founded 


' '  Scholars'  International  Corres- 
pondence," 226;  launched  the 
peace  crusade,  1898,  227;  received 
by  Nicholas  II  of  Russia,  1898, 
227-8  ;  published  "  War  against 
War,"  228  ;  agitation  against  war 
in  South  Africa,  229-30;  friend- 
ship with  Cecil  J.  Rhodes,  231-53  ; 
published  The  Daily  Paper,  1904, 
274  ;  visit  to  South  Africa,  1904, 
274-6  ;  his  belief  in  prayer, 
277-81  ;  death  of  his  eldest  son, 
Willie,  282;  founded  Julia's 
Bureau,  1909,  288  ;  visit  to  Con- 
stantinople, 1911,  320,  333; 
interview  with  the  Sultan  of 
Turkey,  320-29,  333;  published 
pamphlet  "The  Sultan  and  his 
policy,"  329;  entertained  at 
banquet  by  Damad  Ferid  Pasha, 
334  ;  embarked  from  Southampton 
on  his  last  journey,  1912,  341  ; 
last  letters,  342 ;  last  moments, 
343  ;  his  return,  344 

Stead,  Mrs.  W.  T.,  51,  53,  54,  55,  56, 
86-7,  114,  115,  116,  134,  147,  177, 
341 

Stead,  William,  Junr.,  55,  177,  274, 
282-6 

"  Story  that  transformed  the  World," 
quoted,  152 

Strauss,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  344 

"  Sultan  and  His  Policy,"  329-30 

Sunday  school  class,  33-35 


TELEPATHIC  automatic  handwriting, 

193 

Thompson,  Henry  Yates,  90 
Titanic,  341 
Transition,      warnings    of      coming, 

335 

"  Truth  about  the  Navy,"  112-3 
"  Truth  about  Russia,"  148 
Turkey :    visits    to    Constantinople, 

1911,  318,   331;    Turkey    and   the 

Bulgarian  atrocities,    57-71 ;    the 

war  in  Tripoli,  330 
Turkey,  Sultan  of :  interviews  with, 

320-29,    333  ;   present  from,    334 ; 

"The    Sultan    and    His     Policy," 

329-30 
"  Two  and  Two  make  Four,"  272 


UNDERBILL,  Mr.,  121 
Union,  Gospel  of,  319 


INDEX 


351 


United  States  of  America  :  Visit  to 
America,  1893,  211;  "If  Christ 
came  to  Chicago,"  211 

"  WAR  against  War,"  228 
Waugh,  Rev.  Benjamin,  17,  146 


Wilson,  Miss  Annie,  38 

Wilson,      Miss     Emma     Lucy,     38, 

51 

Wilson,  Henry,  51 
Wimbledon,  life  at,  121 
Wreidt,  Mrs.  337 


Wilberforce,     Archdeacon:     extract       Writing,   Automatic,   see  Automatic 
-    10"  ° 


from  sermon,  137-8 


Writing 


R.  CLAY  AND  SONS.  LTD.   BRUNSWICK  STREET  S.E.,  AND  BUNGAY  SUFFOLK. 


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